


Phlogiston Theory

by Jen_Kollic



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-01 02:08:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 71,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen_Kollic/pseuds/Jen_Kollic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Find some way to contain her power, or I will." Famous last words for Princess Bubblegum. She should have known that Flame King would just take that as an open invitation to foist his responsibilities off onto her shoulders. AU story where Flame Princess is raised by Princess Bubblegum instead of being locked in a lantern, will eventually tie in to show canon. Future pairings will be FP/Finn, PB/Marceline and (of course) Jake/Lady.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Adventure Time belongs to Pendleton Ward/Cartoon Network. Thanks to Rinney and Anna for proof-reading.
> 
> This is really just something I wrote to amuse myself, ever since I saw 'Earth and Water' I kept wondering to myself what would have happened if Flame King had just let Princess Bubblegum find a way to contain Flame Princess' power. It grew from there into "what if PB adopted her and raised her instead?" so this is the AU that resulted. Originally it was only going to be a series of vignettes, but it evolved from there into what it is now.

**Phlogiston Theory**

"Find some way to contain her power, or I will." Princess Bubblegum glared at the Flame King as she spoke. She'd never have thought that she'd have missed the old King, but at least he had never abandoned his children on the surface. Not without an army at their backs anyway.

"Pssh, fine," Flame King replied dismissively. "You do it then. But not here."

Bubblegum frowned, glancing down at the baby in her arms, who gurgled at her happily, completely oblivious to the situation. "But she's your daughter," she said uncertainly. "You want me to just take her away? You'd LET me just take her away?"

"Yeah, whatever." The Flame King gave a dismissive flick of one wrist. "Do what you like with her, science junk, whatever. But be warned, Gum Princess…" He leaned down from his throne, his flames blazing to at least twice their usual height. "If you douse her, there will be consequences. Dire consequences."

"I'm not going to douse her!" Bubblegum replied indignantly. "I'm going to…" She broke off in mid-sentence as she realised that Flame King was laughing at her.

"Nah, just kidding," he chuckled. "No biggie if you douse her. Would actually suit me better come to think of it."

Princess Bubblegum was many things, ruler, scientist, diplomat, cold and ruthless logic-driven automaton if Marceline had anything to say about it, but nobody could have accused her of not caring for her subjects. And for Flame King to show such callous disregard not just to one of his subjects, but his own offspring, was a concept that was completely alien to her.

Hearing her father's laughter, the little flame elemental in Bubblegum's arms started to chuckle, her body glowing as she grew hotter. The princess was sure that the suit would be able to withstand the heat, it was made for travelling in the Fire Kingdom after all, but the arm the little girl was cradled in was getting uncomfortably warm so she switched her over to the other. Looking back at Flame King, she could see that he was grinning at her malevolently.

"Not going to be as easy as you thought, huh?" he asked, his grin widening at the look on her face. "Okay, how about you just drop her off in the woods to perish and we pretend this whole thing never happened, deal?"

"No deal," Bubblegum snapped. "I'm taking her back to the Candy Kingdom."

"Your funeral," Flame King shrugged. "Hope you like cremations over there. Oh, and if she burns it to the ground that means technically the Fire Kingdom's conquered it, so it becomes mine. It's the law. Are you even listening?"

Princess Bubblegum was, in fact, not listening at all as she turned her back on her fellow ruler and headed off back along the path that led to the surface. "Stupid Flame King…" she muttered under her breath, then glanced down at the tiny fire elemental she was carrying. The little princess was still looking up at her, but now she was also doing her level best to fit her foot into her mouth. Despite herself, Bubblegum smiled. "Well, I guess I'm going to have fun explaining this to Pepbut, huh little one?"

Flame Princess' only response was a muffled gurgle.

o.o.o.o.o

"Welcome back milady, how did the trip to the Fire Kingdom..." Peppermint Butler's voice trailed off as he saw that the princess was still carrying the infant fire elemental and looked distinctly displeased. "Not well then?" he asked, taking the protective suit's helmet from Bubblegum as she removed it.

"Well, Flame King is a butt, I knew that already," the princess said with a scowl. "But I didn't know just how big a butt he could be until now."

"Did he refuse to see you?" Peppermint Butler hurried along behind the princess as she headed upstairs to her laboratory. "He didn't care that you found his lost daughter?"

"She wasn't lost," Bubblegum replied, her expression softening slightly as she looked down at the baby princess who was cooing and chortling as if this was all some wonderful adventure for her. "He had her left on the surface on purpose."

The small mint man frowned. "If that's his idea of an invasion, he's certainly not the same tactician his brother was."

"It wasn't." Stepping into her lab, Bubblegum carried the little fire girl over to one of the fireproof work surfaces and gently set her down on it. "He just wanted rid of her because he thinks she'll usurp him."

"Well, he does rule the Fire Kingdom," Peppermint Butler shrugged. "That is a hazard of the job. So, what are you going to do with her?"

Rummaging in a drawer full of writing and drawing implements, Bubblegum pulled out a stick of artist's charcoal and carefully handed it to the baby princess. The little girl gurgled happily and started to gnaw on it toothlessly, like any candy child would have done with a stick of barley sugar. "I'm keeping her," she replied, as if it was obvious.

"But milady," Peppermint Butler protested. "She's a fire elemental! She's dangerous, especially since she's so small. She could set the entire castle ablaze. Wouldn't it be better to send her to the Rock Kingdom or the Gem Kingdom? Maybe even the Nightosphere, I'm sure Lord Abadeer..."

"It's not up for discussion Pepbut." Bubblegum's tone made it clear that she'd made up her mind already. "She's my responsibility now so I can't just pass her off to someone else. Besides," she added, leaning her elbows on the bench and studying the tiny princess with clinical detachment. "I'm sure I can find a way for her to control her powers."

Peppermint Butler wasn't so sure. The princess generally had good intentions, but those did pave the road to the Nightosphere, along with a significant portion of that dimension's civic spaces. He hadn't been around three centuries ago when Bubblegum had tried to isolate the compound that caused candy people to explode, but he'd seen the result on occasion and still jumped when anyone said the word 'unacceptable'. Someone else had been there though, and while dropping her name was risky, it was a chance he was willing to take if it meant not waking up on fire.

"Well..." he began hesitantly. "Maybe you should ask Ms Abadeer what she thinks?" Old Mr Creampuff had told him to be very, very careful when using that name, but also that it guaranteed results. He hadn't been wrong, Bubblegum's head immediately snapped towards him, but her glower indicated that this might not have been the best idea after all.

"Marceline?" the princess snapped, eyes narrowing. "Well, maybe if she hadn't upped and left one hundred and eighty-five years, three months and fourteen days ago I would ask her. But since I haven't even had so much as a letter from her, I hardly think she cares!" Her voice had risen to an angry shout, and the little fire elemental began to whimper at the noise. Bubblegum felt a rush of dry heat wash across her as the tiny girl's elemental matrix shifted in response to her emotions.

Picking the baby princess up again, Bubblegum rocked her soothingly. "Shhhhhh, it's okay, I'm not mad with you." She shot a sharp glance towards Peppermint Butler that clearly told him it had been a mistake to mention Marceline. "She's staying. End of discussion. I want you to go and fireproof a room for her like we'd do for any other visitors from the Fire Kingdom."

Groaning inwardly, the mint man bowed. "As you command milady." The little elemental had calmed and was now lying quietly in the candy princess' arms, gurgling as Bubblegum smiled at her. This time, Peppermint Butler's internal groan was heartfelt. He had never thought that the princess could possibly have a biological clock given her age and apparent immortality, but maybe he'd been wrong. "You're not getting attached, are you Peebles?"

"Pssh." The noise Bubblegum made was just as dismissive as the similar one the Flame King had made earlier. "Don't be silly Pepbut, this is for science."


	2. Chapter 2

Strapped securely into a fireproof chair, the little fire princess burbled and gurgled to herself, reaching up to bat at the polyhedral shapes dangling over her head. They were made of tempered glass, and reflected the flames of her hair in tempting flashes that caught her eyes. Princess Bubblegum hadn't been entirely happy about sacrificing them to keep her amused between tests, but it wasn't like she couldn't make a new set of Platonic solids.

The candy princess was on the other side of a viewing window, also made of tempered glass, looking down into the small, heat- shielded room where the baby elemental currently sat. The previously grey insulated walls were already scorched black in places, even though she'd only started her research that morning. So far she'd learned that the little girl's median temperature was around 318.15 degrees Kelvin, but fluctuated depending on whether she was hungry or bored. That reminded her, she'd need more charcoal. Being left alone for too long seemed to upset her, which spiked her temperature to over 370 Kelvin, just short of boiling water.

Thankfully the glass shapes seemed to be distracting the tiny princess now, giving Bubblegum the opportunity to finish her notes. As she continued to write, Peppermint Butler entered the room with an armful of old video tapes.

"Here you are, milady," he said as he set the tapes down on the bench beside the VCR. "I searched the archives and found something funny, something sad and something scary."

"Thanks, P-Butt," the princess replied, finishing the last paragraph of her initial observations and flipping to a new page. She headed it with "Emotional Responses", and under that wrote the sub-heading 'Amusement'. "Could you put the funny one on first please?"

"Not a problem." Inserting the tape into the VCR, the mint man hit play. A video screen flashed on in the room below, directly in front of the little elemental and protected by a thick layer of insulated glass. The image displayed took a few moments to focus, then displayed the green hills of the countryside around the Candy Kingdom.

Flame Princess stopped reaching for the glass shapes and looked at the screen instead, her temperature rising a few degrees in curiosity. Then something else appeared on the screen, a white horse deftly balancing on a beach ball which it used to bounce across the grass. For a moment she looked bewildered and then started to chortle and kick.

Even Princess Bubblegum couldn't help a soft chuckle as the horse continued to roll itself along with expert movements, noting the little girl's rising temperature. It seemed to even out again as it reached 350 Kelvin, not reaching as high as it did when she was upset.

On the screen, the horse stopped abruptly, threw back its head and neighed its name "Joh-oh-oh-ohn Baaaaaaxter." At that, the tiny elemental screamed with laughter, small hands flailing in amusement as her temperature shot up by another fifty degrees. If there had been any water in the room with her, it would have evaporated in seconds.

"Whatever happened to that guy?" Bubblegum asked, looking at the recorded temperatures on the monitoring equipment to see if she could spot any patterns or algorithms in the way the little girl's combustion levels fluctuated.

"I think he settled down and started a family," Peppermint Butler replied. "But I do still see him around from time to time."

The baby elemental continued to laugh as she watched the horse prance around on his ball, stopping now and then to whinny his name which never failed to provoke an extra blast of heat. After a few minutes the recording finished and the screen faded to black. Flame Princess was too busy laughing to notice at first, but then her giggles slowed as she realised it had gone. Her heat levels slowly dropped back to normal, or at least as normal as they could be for a fire elemental, but then began to rise again as she squirmed and fussed in the seat, obviously missing John Baxter.

"Next tape please," Princess Bubblegum said, writing the subheading 'Sadness' in her notebook. Peppermint Butler changed the VCR tape, and the screen flashed back into life. This time however, the footage was from Sad Kitten Island after a flood, and the scene depicted was a group of bedraggled, doe-eyed kittens huddled in the branches of a tree, mewing plaintively.

The little princess stopped her developing tantrum as she saw the screen light up, but this time she stared at it in bewilderment, not sure what to make of it. She chuckled briefly as one of the kittens slipped and fell off the branch to land in the mud, then lost interest completely and started to play with the Platonic solids hanging above her.

"Hmmm. Maybe she's a bit young for sadness," Bubblegum commented, making a note of that then writing the final subheading. 'Fear'. "Go ahead with the next one Pepbut."

"Very well milady." Ejecting the kitten tape, Peppermint Butler replaced it with the final tape, old security camera footage that he'd found in the archive. It was certainly scary, he could swear to that one.

The video was grainy from age, but it seemed to have been taken from the city walls, pointed out towards the grasslands. Princess Bubblegum frowned as she watched it, it looked like it must have been taken decades ago, the trees looked much shorter. She couldn't see what was scary about it and wondered what Peppermint Butler had been thinking to choose it. Then the screen went dark as a grotesque face popped up right in front of the camera, as if it was leering through the centuries right at them. It had empty black pits for eyes lit by lurid green sparks that glowed with sheer malice, and the lower portion of its face had been torn away, exposing the jawbone and jagged teeth. The Lich.

The sight of the monster froze Bubblegum in place, her heart pounding in fear even though she knew the creature was imprisoned in amber in the tree at the centre of the castle. It froze Flame Princess as well, the tiny elemental staring wide-eyed at the screen as if mesmerized. Then she shrieked in outright terror and began to wail, struggling uselessly against the seat's restraints as she tried to get away from the Lich's malevolent gaze.

The sound snapped the candy princess out of her fugue, and she shook her head to clear it. "Turn it off!" she ordered, her voice cracking. "Are you crazy?! What in Glob's name made you think that was appropriate?"

"You said you wanted scary!" Peppermint Butler retaliated as he stopped the tape. "And that was the scariest thing I could find!"

"I didn't mean terrify her out of her wits!" Bubblegum snapped, starting to pull on the protective suit she'd used in the Fire Kingdom. "A ghost or something would have been fine, but the Lich?" With a frustrated grunt, she headed for the sealed door into the test chamber. She could still hear Flame Princess screaming from inside the room, and the sound seemed to twist painfully in her chest. Or was that guilt?

"Princess, I really don't think that's a good idea!" Behind her, Peppermint Butler sounded panicked. "According to the sensors, the test chamber's over eight hundred degrees Kelvin… maybe you should let her calm down first?"

"You mean just sit here and listen to her screaming like that?" The candy princess' voice was incredulous. "No way. Besides, the suit can take up to a thousand Kelvin anyway." However, despite her words Bubblegum flinched as she opened the door, the heat hitting her like a blast from an industrial furnace. But then the sound of the little elemental's cries hit her too. Gritting her teeth, she moved forward purposely towards her, feeling sweat already trickling down her back.

Reaching down to release Flame Princess from the seat, Bubblegum automatically recoiled as the heat grew even more intense, hot enough to melt aluminium or zinc easily. The tempered glass shapes hanging above her were glowing white-hot, and the candy princess felt her skin of her hands and arms tingle and ripple as her own molecular structure was affected. The little elemental was glowing too, her tiny body outlined in intense flames as she screamed.

Taking a deep breath, Bubblegum reminded herself that it would take more than simple heat to return her to her original protoplasmic state. Crouching beside the seat, she unhooked the carbon fibre restraints holding Flame Princess in place and lifted her gently, faint wisps of smoke rising from the sleeves of the protective suit as they were scorched by contact with the fire girl.

"It's okay," Bubblegum said soothingly, rocking the little elemental just as she would have done with an infant candy person. Only in this case, she could feel intense heat starting to sear her arms. "The bad monster's gone; nothing's going to hurt you." To her increasing discomfort, Flame Princess' response was to burrow into the fireproof suit for comfort, burying her face in the candy princess' chest as she continued to sob. Bubblegum had to bite back a yelp of shock as flame engulfed her, thankfully the suit didn't burn but she could feel her hair starting to distort and drip. It was closer to the structure of her original form than the rest of her was, and much more heat would probably melt it right off. That would be embarrassing at the very least.

Although she was tempted to hold the tiny fire girl at arms-length, Bubblegum knew that wouldn't be very productive. Flame Princess was only a baby and needed the physical contact to soothe her like all infants. Bubblegum would just have to hope that she calmed down before the protective suit got hot enough to burn her skin. Continuing to rock and shush her, the candy princess slowly walked up and down the test chamber, glancing upwards to see Peppermint Butler at the observation window, watching her with a look of sheer horror. She could only hope that he hadn't interfered with the monitoring equipment, since he clearly wasn't taking any notes.

The flames around her began to gutter and die as Flame Princess' sobs died down into sniffles and Bubblegum breathed a long sigh of relief as she felt the temperature start to fall. "There we go," she said gently, looking down at the little girl. "Poor Flame Princess, did that horrible monster scare you? I'm sorry sweetheart, I should have checked the videos first. I didn't even know we HAD a video of that mean old Lich… which I should probably destroy now that I think about it, before it makes anyone explode. It's lucky you're not a candy person, huh?"

Flame Princess was far too young to understand what Bubblegum was saying, but was comforted by the sound of her voice and gradually stopped crying. The thing that had frightened her had gone away, she could see that now, and she settled back down to her normal heat level. She gurgled as the candy princess smiled at her, reaching up towards her with tiny hands.

Tugging off the suit's now uncomfortably humid helmet with one hand, Bubblegum breathed a sigh of relief. The air in the test chamber was still hot and dry enough to scorch her throat, but it beat having to breathe a mist of her own sweat. Long, half-melted strands of her hair pulled away with the helmet, but thankfully most of it seemed intact as she shook it out. Once she was sure that Flame Princess' combustion levels had dropped to the point where she wouldn't set things on fire just by being in the same room, Bubblegum carried her back up into the observation chamber.

Peppermint Butler stared at her in stunned disbelief as the princess walked back into the room, apparently amazed that she'd made it out intact. "Uhhhh… your highness? Are you feeling all right? You seem very… not melted."

"I told you the suit could take it," she replied dismissively. "Though there's bits of my hair all over the inside now, could you please clean that later? I'm going to take Flame Princess back to her room."

"Of course milady." Peppermint Butler paused as he glanced down at his schedule. "What about this afternoon's tests?"

"I think we've both had enough science for today," Bubblegum replied, looking down at the little elemental. Flame Princess had managed to grab a handful of gummy pink hair, which Bubblegum hadn't even noticed being torn out, and was squeezing it between her hands like putty and giggling, the Lich forgotten. Then it caught fire and burned to a cinder, giving off a strong burnt sugar smell. "Also I'll need a cold bath to set my hair again. And leave that tape of the Lich there," she added over her shoulder as she carried Flame Princess out into the corridor. "I'm going to make sure it's destroyed once I've gotten Flame Princess settled."

There was a pause as Bubblegum looked down at the tiny girl. "Flame Princess is a bit of a mouthful isn't it? How about I call you Feuer instead? That means fire, so it suits you. Do you like that?" The little elemental was crumbling the cinders of Bubblegum's hair between her hands but looked up at the sound of her voice and gurgled. "I'll take that as a yes then."

Peppermint Butler sighed. "You're giving her a name now?"

"She already has a name P-Butt," Bubblegum responded. "Feuer is just a nickname. Don't read so much into it."

"Of course not milady…" the mint man sighed, fetching a broom from the utility closet in the observation room and going into the test chamber to sweep up the mess of ashes and droplets of molten bubblegum hair. "It's all for science after all…"


	3. Chapter 3

"OH GROD SHE'S LOOSE!" If the screams from the castle halls above the cellar hadn't been enough to indicate that perhaps leaving Cinnamon Bun to watch Flame Princess hadn't been one of Peppermint Butler's better ideas, Starchy's panicked yell would have sealed it. With an irritable sigh, the small mint man blew out the candles of his summoning circle and kicked the salt and ash lining the sigils marked on the floor apart.

With Princess Bubblegum gone to one of her science conferences he'd been hoping to have enough time to himself to summon Ogdoad, since he still had a dispute to settle there, but apparently that was too much to ask. He'd thought that even Cinnamon Bun could have handled the relatively simple task of replaying the tape of John Baxter over and over for Flame Princess until she fell asleep, since that was Peppermint Butler's tried and tested babysitting procedure, but again he'd been asking too much.

Climbing out of the cellar and back into the kitchen, the mint man closed the trapdoor behind him and pushed the rug back over it, then went out into the main hall to check on the damage. He couldn't see any smoke so far, which was a good sign, but he also couldn't see any of the castle staff or Flame Princess, though he could hear the sound of screams and running feet from the corridors. In the month since Princess Bubblegum had brought the little elemental back from the Fire Kingdom this sort of thing had happened on occasion, but this was the first time that Flame Princess had gotten out without Bubblegum being there to deal with it.

As Peppermint Butler moved into the corridor, the screams grew louder and a small group of servants sprinted past, screaming in terror. They were followed by the small, blazing form of Flame Princess who was chasing them and giggling, apparently thinking this was all a game. Luckily she was wearing socks and gloves of the fireproof carbon-weave fabric that Princess Bubblegum had devised, which stopped her setting fire to things just by touching them. Unfortunately, the little elemental was still perfectly capable of bursting into flame and could still ignite other people by hugging them. Added to that, the heat-resistant coating on the socks gave her better traction, so now she could run faster without falling over.

Peppermint Butler took a few steps back in the hope that Flame Princess wouldn't see him but to his relief she didn't even glance at him, too busy trying to catch the fleeing candy people. Then, as she followed them up a flight of stairs, he heard another familiar voice.

"Hey, that's not hiding princess!" Cinnamon Bun appeared at the same end of the corridor that Flame Princess had emerged from, but not running nearly as fast. "That's not how you play hide and seek."

"Cinnamon Bun!" Peppermint snapped as the dim-witted pastry went past him. "You were supposed to keep her in her room, how did she get out?"

Lurching to a halt, almost losing his balance in the process, Cinnamon Bun turned to face the mint man. "Oh, that was boring so we decided to play hide and seek and I was seeking first so I let her out and counted to ten and that took a while but now she's not hiding. I'm seeking anyway, but she's pretty fast for a little thing."

"You were supposed to play the video for her," Peppermint said through his teeth. "I thought you loved John Baxter?"

"Well yeah," Cinnamon Bun replied. "But then it finished and we got bored."

"Why didn't you just rewind it?" the mint man demanded, though he already had a sneaking suspicion of where his plan had gone wrong. Cinnamon Bun confirmed his theory by giving him a blank look.

"What's rewind?"

Before Peppermint Butler could reply, the sound of shrieks and running feet grew closer again and the fleeing servants poured back down the staircase and scattered, obviously deciding to take their chances separately. All they had to do was outrun each other after all.

"There you are!" Unlike every other candy person, though perhaps not surprisingly, Cinnamon Bun chose to run towards the tiny elemental as she appeared at the top of the stairs, waving her arms and chortling in delight. "I found you princess, now it's your turn to seek."

"Wait, Cinnamon Bun, don't let her…" Before Peppermint Butler could finish, Flame Princess did exactly what he was afraid of and lost her footing on the stairs, tripping and falling down them with a squeal of surprise. "…ohhhhhh, Peebles is going to kill me…" he moaned, looking away and waiting for the inevitable screams when the fire girl hit the bottom.

Instead what he heard was a wet thud, followed by a splat and the soft sizzle of caramelizing sugar. Looking back round, the mint man saw that Flame Princess had collided with Cinnamon Bun on the stairs, and the impact had knocked him backwards to land on the floor at the foot of the stairs, cushioning her fall. He wasn't on fire, which was somewhat disappointing, but the little princess had melted his frosting where she'd hit him, and was now firmly stuck to him, still giggling happily.

Peppermint Butler sighed, starting to wish he'd stayed in the cellar after all. "Well, at least now nobody can say you didn't win at hide and seek, huh?"

o.o.o.o.o

"Ow, ow, ow, ow..."

"If you don't shut up, I'll leave her stuck to you," Peppermint Butler warned, pulling hard on the oversized spatula he was using to pry Flame Princess out of Cinnamon Bun's frosting. The molten sugar had solidified into a rock-hard bond, and while he was very, very tempted to find something to frighten the little elemental so that she'd burn herself free, that probably wouldn't end well for Cinnamon Bun. It would certainly be entertaining, but Princess Bubblegum wouldn't be happy with that solution.

"Awwww, I don't mind," Cinnamon Bun replied. "I like Flame Princess. And this makes watching her real easy."

"Yes, but I'M supposed to be watching her." Peppermint Butler grunted as he hauled on the spatula as hard as he could. He'd pretty much dragged Cinnamon Bun back up to Flame Princess' room, hoping that he could get her free and cleaned up before Bubblegum got back. Then he could pretend this whole thing never happened.

"Then why did you tell me to watch her?" Cinnamon Bun asked, genuinely bewildered. Peppermint Butler didn't reply, instead throwing his weight back and forth against the spatula handle with inarticulate sounds of rage.

Flame Princess chortled as the spatula bounced her up and down, finding this very entertaining. As her combustion level began to rise correspondingly, the caramelized sugar sticking her in place slowly began to soften. And as Peppermint Butler launched himself at the spatula with a frustrated yell she came free, catapulting across the room to hit the far wall and stick there upside-down, halfway between floor and ceiling.

"GROB GOB GLOB AND GROD!" Throwing the sticky spatula down, Peppermint Butler jumped on it, fuming. "This is just PERFECT!"

Cinnamon Bun on the other hand just laughed, despite now having a raw, bare patch on his front that was shaped vaguely like a small fire elemental. "Awwwww, she's happy. Isn't that nice?"

Flame Princess certainly didn't seem at all upset by her brief flight and collision with the wall, waving her hands at the two candy people as she chuckled and gurgled. If anything, she seemed to have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it also seemed like she was now well and truly stuck since the molten sugar had set again and now she was too high up for either of them to reach. And frightening her was even less of an option what with the very real possibility that the little elemental would also set the castle on fire.

"Go and get a ladder," Peppermint ground out between his teeth, glaring at the giggling fire girl as if this was all her fault.

"Okay!" Cinnamon Bun replied helpfully, turning towards the door. "Hi Princess Bubblegum!"

Jumping in nervous shock, Peppermint Butler quickly turned around to be confronted by the candy princess, who was standing in the doorway looking far from pleased. "Princess! I, uh, didn't think you'd be back till tomorrow…"

"No, I said I would be back on the Morrow," Bubblegum's voice was icy. "Would you mind explaining what Flame Princess is doing stuck to a wall six feet from the ground?"

Peppermint Butler considered his options, then pointed at Cinnamon Bun accusingly. "He did it!"

Bubblegum briefly switched her baleful gaze to Cinnamon Bun, who waved at her cheerfully, then back to Peppermint Butler. "While you were supposed to be watching her?"

"Uhhhh…" Peppermint thought about that for a moment, then decided that repentance would be the best course of action and grovelled instead. "I'm sorry milady, I was busy with my other duties so I asked Cinnamon Bun to watch her for a moment and, well, he's Cinnamon Bun…" Glancing up at the princess, he saw that she was no longer glaring at him, now she was looking at Flame Princess instead, and trying not to smile.

Flame Princess had stretched out both arms towards the candy princess, reaching for her as if she wanted to be picked up despite already being higher than Bubblegum could reach. She knew her by sight now and even if the candy princess still denied that she was getting attached to the little elemental, Flame Princess obviously didn't share that sentiment.

"Pull a chair over to her Pepbutt," Bubblegum ordered, pulling on a long pair of gloves and a full-length apron made of the same fireproof fabric she'd used for Flame Princess' socks and gloves. She'd found the fireproof suit too cumbersome and clumsy for regular wear, the carbon-fibre material was much lighter and still absorbed enough heat to allow the candy princess to lift the little elemental without being burned.

Climbing up onto the chair that Peppermint Butler had placed for her, Princess Bubblegum reached up to gently tickle the little elemental, who giggled and kicked in response, starting to glow brighter as she grew hotter. Again, the increasing heat softened the melted sugar, and after a few minutes Flame Princess fell off the wall and into Bubblegum's waiting arms, immediately sticking to her gloves.

"There," the candy princess said as she stepped down and fixed Peppermint Butler with a stern look. "I don't know how she got up there, I don't want to know, but it better not happen again. What if she'd fallen?"

"Oh, she could just have landed on me again," Cinnamon Bun put in brightly. "I don't mind."

"No Cinnamon Bun," Bubblegum sighed. "That's really not… wait, what do you mean 'again'?"

Peppermint Butler had managed to edge around the room almost to the door when he heard Cinnamon Bun explain exactly what he'd meant by 'again', and silently cursed as he waited for the inevitable yell from the princess. He already knew this wasn't one of his better days, but somehow it just kept managing to get worse…


	4. Chapter 4

Princess Bubblegum leaned against the viewing window, looking down into the test chamber where Flame Princess was sitting amidst a pile of charred paper. The little elemental wasn't restrained, free to toddle around the room as she pleased. The only reasons that she wasn't allowed the same freedom in the rest of the castle were that most of the candy people were still terrified of her, and she still had a tendency to burst into flames if she tripped or ran into a closed door. She was only a few months old, so Bubblegum was hopeful that she could teach her not to do that in time.

From her studies, the candy princess was now sure that the fire girl had some level of control over her powers, even if it was only rudimentary at present. Flame Princess seemed to love bright colours and was currently halfway through melting a bucket of crayons. Bubblegum watched as the little girl picked up an emerald green one, which began to melt and distort in her grasp. But unlike the first dozen or so, it wasn't reduced to a puddle of wax in seconds, Flame Princess seemed to have realised they kept doing that and was making an effort not to melt it.

"That's right," Bubblegum said encouragingly, even though there was no way that the little elemental could hear her through the thick glass. "You're learning."

Putting the crayon to the singed paper in front of her, Flame Princess scrawled a thick green line across it. It was already covered in multicoloured handprints from where previous crayons had melted in her grip, but this was the first time she'd actually managed to draw something. With a delighted chuckle, the little elemental scribbled wildly across the paper, then picked up another crayon in her other hand, a pink one this time, and started to draw with that one as well.

Bubblegum giggled softly as she watched Flame Princess continue to scribble on the paper, wondering if she was actually trying to make a picture or just enjoying the colours. Whatever it was, the little princess certainly found it entertaining, gurgling happily as she covered the paper in a layer of multicoloured wax.

It happened very suddenly. One moment Flame Princess was drawing, the next there was a bright flash of flame and the paper in front of her was reduced to ash, the crayons in her hands melting completely and dripping to the floor. Bubblegum sighed; the little elemental must have gotten too excited and lost whatever control she had over her combustion levels. Flame Princess didn't seem to have realised quite what had happened, gazing in bewilderment at the pile of cinders that had been paper a moment ago. Then her face fell as she whimpered and the temperature of the test chamber rose as she started to cry.

Before the little elemental could get too worked up, Bubblegum went into the chamber and picked her up, already wearing her protective gloves and apron. "It's okay Feuer, I can get you more crayons," she said soothingly, holding Flame Princess in the crook of one arm. Even though she was crying, the tiny fire girl wasn't burning nearly as hot as she had the day she'd been terrified by the Lich video. She settled again as she looked up at the candy princess, smiling at her toothlessly.

Bubblegum smiled back, brushing strands of fiery hair back from the little girl's face with a gloved hand. "Let's see now," she began, starting to pace up and down the chamber as she often did while deep in thought, only this time carrying Flame Princess with her. "Fireproofing the crayons probably wouldn't do much good, because I would have to do that by mixing them with a heat resistant polymer or something. And if I did that, they wouldn't work very well at all because they'd be harder, and they need to react with friction on the paper to draw, don't they?"

Flame Princess' only response was garbled baby sounds, but she was still looking up at Bubblegum attentively as the candy princess continued talking. "Paper isn't a very good material for you either because it's just too flammable. Maybe I could use fire-resistant cloth? No, that definitely wouldn't work, I'd need to change the composition of the crayons to get them to draw on fabric with any effectiveness, and that wouldn't be compatible with heatproofing polymers either..." Stopping her pacing, Bubblegum looked slowly around the test chamber as if in search of inspiration.

"Come on Bonnibel, if you're half the genius you think you are, the answer should be clear as…" Her words trailed off as she looked up at the test chamber's window. "…glass," she finished thoughtfully. "Hmmmm…"

o.o.o.o.o

"Uhhhhh, milady, are you sure this is wise?" Peppermint Butler asked nervously as he watched the princess tightening the bolts on the miniature glass furnace.

"Well it's not going to hurt her P-butt," Bubblegum replied, tugging hard on the wrench to make sure the bolts were secure. She definitely didn't want molten glass leaking everywhere. "She's a fire elemental, she could put her hand in this thing and it would be like putting it in water for you or me. And besides, she needs something to keep her occupied."

Peppermint Butler rolled his eyes, knowing that the princess couldn't see him from behind the furnace. "Well, forgive me for speaking plainly milady…"

"…don't you always…" Bubblegum muttered, half to herself.

"…but I still think you should reconsider," the mint man finished. "Yes, Flame Princess may be completely immune to heat, but I was more thinking of the floor, the walls, other people and the like. You did say you were trying to teach her control after all, so a hobby that requires extreme levels of heat may not be the best choice. With respect, milady."

There was a long pause as the candy princess thought it over, tapping the wrench against her palm. Peppermint Butler did have a very good point there, she'd been so caught up with her idea that she hadn't looked at the implications of letting Flame Princess play with molten glass. To keep it in a liquid state it would need to stay at over 2000 degrees Kelvin, more than twice as hot as the little elemental had burned when she was upset. On consideration, encouraging the little elemental to burn hotter rather than cooler was probably not the best idea if she wanted to teach her control.

"Okay Peppermint, I admit it," she said grudgingly. "You're right. Do you have any suggestions for an alternative?"

"As a matter of fact I do," he replied with a self-satisfied grin that immediately raised Bubblegum's suspicions.

"If this involves the Nightosphere then I swear to Glob…" She left the sentence hanging, the threat clear, but Peppermint Butler shook his head.

"No, no, of course not!" He couldn't hold back a nervous giggle though, since he did have more than a few ideas involving the realm of chaos, but none of them involved Flame Princess. Not at the moment anyway. "I was thinking that sugar might be a better idea Peebles, we have plenty of it, it melts much more easily, we can dye it bright colours, and if she gets bored of playing with it she can eat it."

"And it'll burn if her combustion levels are too high," Bubblegum added thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. "So that would help her learn control as well. That's a really good idea Pepbutt."

"Why thank you milady," he replied with a bow. He had absolutely no intention of telling her that he'd gotten the idea from Cinnamon Bun. Or rather, from the way the little elemental had melted his frosting…

o.o.o.o.o

"Okay, let's give this a try then," Bubblegum said to the little fire girl who was sitting in her lap on the floor of the test chamber. In front of them was a large white ceramic tile, and to one side was a laboratory hot plate that the princess had jury-rigged into a heated palette with the addition of a copper sheet that she'd hammered several depressions into. She'd set it to 450 Kelvin, so the handfuls of coloured sugar that she'd placed in each depression were now pools of viscous caramel.

Putting a long-handled copper spoon into Flame Princess' hand, Bubblegum showed her how to scoop up a small amount of bright red caramel and moved her hand over to the tile. The little elemental watched the molten sugar drip onto the white tile curiously then slapped it with the spoon, transforming the droplets into a large splatter. That definitely got her attention, Flame Princess giggled at the mess she'd made and hit it with the spoon a few more times for good measure.

The caramel was already cooling and solidifying on contact with the tile, so again Bubblegum moved the little girl's hand back to the copper palette to get more. This time Flame Princess didn't need to be shown what to do with it, she brought it back over to the tile and catapulted the coloured caramel in its general direction with the spoon, spattering it across one corner. Laughing uproariously now, the little elemental gathered more molten sugar with the spoon and added it to the mess, using the utensil to spread lines of it across the surface of the tile.

"How is it working out, Peebles?" Peppermint Butler asked, looking cautiously around the door but not entering the room.

"I think it's working really…" Princess Bubblegum made the mistake of taking her eyes off the fire girl as she replied, and before she could stop her Flame Princess had grabbed the entire palette and upended it over the tile, sending streams of multi-coloured caramel everywhere. As if that wasn't enough, she then started hitting it as hard as she could with the spoon, splattering molten sugar in every direction.

"I think it's working," Bubblegum corrected herself. "But it could definitely do with some refining. Feuer, no!" She took the spoon off Flame Princess before she could spread the mess any further. "I'm glad you like it, but if you make this much mess with sugar then you'll just end up stuck to something again, won't you?" The candy princess did her best to sound firm, but her stern expression cracked into a smile as the little elemental looked up at her, her face spattered with colourful sugar droplets. "You are so lumping lucky that I can't stay mad at you, you know that? And that I can't give you a bath," she added. "I really need to come up with a way to keep you clean that doesn't involve water…"

"Wa'at."Flame Princess replied, then giggled.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After speaking to my proof readers about writing Lady Rainicorn's dialogue I decided to leave it in English rather than translate it to Korean with Google, because when I translated it back to English it never made sense. She is still speaking Korean of course, but as Bubblegum understands her I've 'translated' what she's saying. _[This is Lady speaking Korean]_ Hopefully that makes sense.

**Chapter 5**

"I'm so sorry Lady, I had no idea I'd been shut away so long," Princess Bubblegum apologised as the rainicorn landed opposite her at the table on the balcony, her lower body coiling around it. "It really doesn't feel like it's been four months..."

_[I'm not surprised,]_ Lady replied, laughing. [ _If you didn't have Peppermint Butler I'd worry about you forgetting to eat…]_

"Pepbutt is good at reminding me to eat," Bubblegum admitted. "And shower. He doesn't even try to be diplomatic about that. But that is one of the reasons Mr Creampuff recommended him as his replacement." Pouring two cups of tea from the pot in front of her, the princess handed one of them to Lady, who sipped at it delicately. "I should probably explain what I've been doing," Bubblegum began, self-consciously looking down at the gloves and apron she was wearing. "There is a reason I'm wearing this..."

_[Go ahead, I'm listening.]_ The rainicorn regarded Bubblegum with polite interest, though she was inwardly hoping that this wasn't going to be a science lecture again. She loved the candy princess like a sister, but Bubblegum didn't always realise that not everyone shared her passion for knowledge and invention.

Turning towards the balcony's open door, Bubblegum leaned down and called gently. "Feuer? Come and meet Lady Rainicorn."

Lady tilted her head to one side curiously, wondering if the princess had been experimenting with her candy person formula again. She'd thought that Bubblegum had sworn that off after her last change to it had created Lemongrab. Then, to her great surprise, a small humanoid figure came running towards them that was definitely not a candy person. A candy person wouldn't have been on fire.

Running straight to Bubblegum, Flame Princess gurgled as the candy princess lifted her onto her lap and gave her a stick of charcoal to chew on. She looked at the rainicorn with interest, and in turn Lady stared at her in open-mouthed shock.

_[How did... You never said anything...]_ Looking from the little elemental to Bubblegum and back again, Lady was having trouble trying to think of a way she could phrase her questions, and she had quite a lot of them, in a polite manner. The child was clearly a fire person, so the candy princess couldn't have created her. Not in a laboratory anyway. [ _Wasn't that painful?]_ She blurted the question out without thinking, then blushed. [ _I mean... I don't understand how that could work with all the fire…]_

"Wait, what?" Bubblegum's look of bemusement vanished as she realised what her friend was thinking. "Oh!" She gave an awkward laugh. "She's, uh, not actually mine. I sort of adopted her."

_[Ah, I see.]_ Lady Rainicorn laughed as well in a mixture of embarrassment and relief. [ _I'm sorry, Princess. I just couldn't imagine how it would have worked if she was yours. Well, I could imagine, but it wasn't pleasant...]_

Bubblegum was blushing as well now, while Flame Princess had started to laugh with Lady Rainicorn even though she had no idea of what was being said. "Yes, well, this is Flame Princess, but I call her Feuer for short. How she ended up here is a bit of a long story and it still makes me angry."

_[Hello, Flame Princess,]_ Lady said gently, stretching her neck across the table to get a good look at the little elemental. [ _You're very cute, aren't you?]_ Even if Flame Princess had been able to understand Korean, she was still too young to know what Lady was saying, but she reached out to put both hands on her nose before Bubblegum could stop her

"Be careful, she might…" The candy princess' voice trailed off as she saw that absolutely nothing had happened, Flame Princess was stroking the fur on Lady's nose, which wasn't even singed, as the rainicorn chuckled softly.

_[It's all right princess, she won't hurt me,]_ Lady said reassuringly. _[Not unless she intended to anyway, she just feels like strong sunlight at the moment.]_

"Of course, I was forgetting that you'd be used to the suns in the Crystal Dimension, I should have remembered that rainicorns are more heat-tolerant than candy people." Bubblegum set Flame Princess back down on the floor, and the little elemental immediately started to clamber on to Lady's back. "Feuer! That's not polite."

_[It's all right, I don't mind,]_ the rainicorn said as Bubblegum moved to pick the fire girl up again. [ _If she gets too hot I'll just let her phase through me, but the heat would need to be much more intense before it would burn me.]_

"Well, if she does start getting hotter then please put her down, even if she's not burning you," Bubblegum requested, watching as Flame Princess buried her face in Lady's blonde mane. "I'm trying to teach her that getting too hot is bad. She's learning, but I need to be consistent with her. And don't let her pull your hair; she needs to understand that's bad."

_[Very well,]_ the rainicorn agreed, shifting position a little to stop Flame Princess from falling off her back. [ _Anyway… you said that why she's here is a long story that makes you angry? I'd still like to hear it.]_

Princess Bubblegum sighed, glancing towards the little elemental and glad that she couldn't understand her. "Well, all right," she began. "It started when I noticed a forest fire…"

o.o.o.o.o

"...so I brought her back here." Princess Bubblegum sighed as she finished the story, pouring out more cups of tea for herself and Lady. Flame Princess had fallen asleep on the rainicorn's back, half-hidden by her mane, but Lady had been listening attentively to the candy princess, her expression almost as stunned as it had been earlier when she'd thought the little elemental was her child.

_[He wanted you to leave her in the woods to perish?]_ Lady's voice was just as shocked as her expression. [ _How could anyone do that?]_

"I don't understand either, Lady." Bubblegum replied. "I mean... I've not always made the best decisions, Grod knows I know that, but I could never just abandon one of my children. Even with Lemongrab I did my best, even if I had to leave him alone in the end."

_[Doesn't he still have servants?]_ Lady asked. [ _I know he sent most of them away, but surely he still has some.]_

"Only if he's gotten new ones, he exiled the last of the ones I gave him last year," the princess explained. "He said it was for treason and that I was trying to use them to kill him."

_[That's ridiculous,]_ the rainicorn scoffed, sipping her tea. _[What did they do?]_

Bubblegum sighed again. "One of them made his tea too hot, which he took as an assassination attempt. The next made his tea to cold, which was also an attempted assassination. And the last one was too round, which offended him."

Lady began to laugh, but stopped as she saw the look on Bubblegum's face. _[Did you try to speak to him about it?]_

"I tried to, yes," Bubblegum had propped her head up on both elbows, staring off into the distance. "He wouldn't even let me into his castle. He just stood on the roof screaming and throwing kitchenware at me until I went away. Since then I've left him alone. He's happier that way."

The rainicorn shrugged slightly, careful not to disturb Flame Princess. _You tried,_ she said comfortingly. _[If he's happier alone then maybe it's better this way.]_

"I just wish I knew where I went wrong," Bubblegum said quietly. "He doesn't explode when he freaks out, so at least I got that right, but he never seems to stop freaking out." Shaking off her melancholy, the candy princess straightened up in her seat. "Anyway. I'm not going to make the same mistakes with Flame Princess."

_[Lemongrab is only one out of hundreds of your candy people.]_ Lady's voice was reassuring. [ _I'm sure Flame Princess will turn out fine. She hasn't tried to bite me yet or anything.]_

"Well, she'd need teeth for that first," Bubblegum replied, smiling despite herself. "Thanks Lady, our talks always help."

_[Any time, Princess.]_ Lady smiled back, leaning across the table to nuzzle Bubblegum affectionately. _[And let me know if you need a babysitter.]_

o.o.o.o.o

Flame Princess was beginning to get the hang of painting with caramel, now she was making crude, blobby shapes with the molten sugar instead of random splatters. Bubblegum was starting to wonder if the pink blobs the little elemental kept making were supposed to be her, or if Flame Princess just liked pink.

As the candy princess entered the test chamber, Flame Princess looked around at the sound of the door closing, and pushed herself up onto her feet. Running full tilt at Bubblegum, the little fire girl wrapped her arms around the princess' knees and looked up at her, gabbling baby sounds.

"Mam, mam, mam, mam, mam…" Bubblegum sighed inwardly as she crouched down in front of the little elemental, she'd been trying to correct this for weeks now.

"No Feuer, Princess Bubblegum. Bubblegum," she told her firmly. It wasn't that she objected to Flame Princess calling her mom, the candy people had called her Mother for centuries and the Gumball Guardians still did on occasion. But once the little elemental was older, it would lead to awkward questions once she worked out that Bubblegum couldn't possibly be her parent.

"Bubba… mam." Unfortunately for the princess, the fire girl already seemed to have made her mind up. "Bubbamam!"

_"Ugh, did you EVER brush this?" the fourteen year-old Bubblegum asked in exasperation, now trying to untangle the comb that had become hopelessly stuck in Marceline's hair."_

_"I kind of had other things to worry about," the grey-skinned girl grumbled as Bubblegum tugged at the comb. "Simon used to brush it for me sometimes, but that was years ago. Ow!" She tried to jerk away as the comb caught on another mat. "That hurts!"_

_"Well either I get all these knots out, or I shave your head," Bubblegum said firmly. "Because if you can't comb your hair, you'll get lice. I'm pretty sure those still exist."_

_"Yes Bubblemom," Marceline groaned sarcastically. "Actually that's a pretty good name for you. We should call you that instead of Bonnibel…"_

Blinking, the candy princess came back to the present and looked down at Flame Princess with a wistful smile. "Actually, on second thoughts I think I prefer 'mom' if you're going to insist on it."

"Mam," the little elemental agreed, then rubbed sticky hands all over Bubblegum's skirt.


	6. Chapter 6

Looking up from her notes, Bubblegum saw the sun starting to set outside the window of her lab. She had been working on the formula for her decorpsinator serum but it was still in its very early stages, barely more than strings of mathematical equations at this point. It would take years of research before she could even synthetize a prototype, but she got twitchy without something to work on in her downtime.

A large section of the lab had been fenced off and fireproofed for Flame Princess so that Bubblegum could keep an eye on her while she worked, and also because it was far more interesting for the little elemental than being stuck in her room or the test chamber. She was three now, extremely curious, rapidly learning to talk and gradually developing more and more control over her powers. She could be trusted to handle Science without burning her, and the candy rat seemed to have taken a liking to the little princess, often sitting on her lap or shoulder while she played.

"Okay Feuer, time for bed," Bubblegum said, walking over to the gate in the fence. It was there more to protect Flame Princess than keep her enclosed. There were a lot of things in the lab that would either be hazardous to her, or hazardous to others if she accidentally ignited them. She was still too young to be allowed to roam the castle unsupervised, but with an appropriate chaperone, usually either Bubblegum or Lady Rainicorn if the candy princess was busy with her duties, she had been permitted to explore the castle and gardens.

Flame Princess was currently shaping a lump of molten white sugar into a rough disc, using it more like modelling clay instead of paint now. She looked up at the sound of Bubblegum's voice, and showed the caramel shape to her, its edges marked with haphazard red stripes. "Making Pepbutt!" the little elemental announced proudly. She'd been trying to make the Morrow earlier, but had gotten frustrated with the way the wings she'd added had kept drooping so now it was just a brown blob.

"I can see that," Bubblegum replied with a smile. "But you can finish him tomorrow, if you let the sugar set overnight it'll be hard in the morning so it won't melt as easily."

"Okay, mommy." For an elemental with an intrinsically unstable nature, it often surprised Bubblegum that Flame Princess was generally well-behaved. She had the occasional destructive tantrum of course, which meant time out in the test chamber where she couldn't destroy anything, but that was generally a rare occurrence. Bubblegum often wondered if that was because she'd spent most of her life in the Candy Kingdom rather than the Fire Kingdom, she knew that the alignment of Fire Kingdom citizens was evil, but maybe that was more to do with nurture than their nature. If they all approached parenting like their king did, well, that certainly explained a lot.

Opening the gate, Bubblegum reached down to take Flame Princess's hand as the little girl got to her feet. She had rapidly outgrown her old clothes, and while Bubblegum had been slightly wary of dealing with the Fire Kingdom she'd found that the merchants were perfectly happy to trade goods, such as suitable clothing for a small girl, for coal. She hadn't wanted to make fire-resistant clothing for the little elemental because that would artificially contain her powers, Flame Princess needed to be aware of her combustion levels in order to control them properly. Instead, the little princess was wearing a dress of deep red firecloth belted with an orange sash which was totally unaffected by her heat levels. Flame Princess had wanted pink like Bubblegum, but firecloth only came in shades of red, orange and yellow.

"I think you might need a bath before bed," Bubblegum said with a chuckle. "I think you might be stuck to me now…" The little girl's hands were still covered with molten sugar that was starting to solidify now, and more was spattered across her dress.

"Yay!" Tugging her hand free, Flame Princess ran out of the lab, heading for the test chamber. Ever since Bubblegum had devised a method of effectively cleaning her, bathtime had been a favourite for her. Following the little elemental, Bubblegum pulled on protective clothing in the observation room, then picked up what appeared to be a silver fire extinguisher.

Going into the test chamber, where Flame Princess was already waiting, Bubblegum stopped a safe distance away from her and raised the nozzle of the silver canister. "Ready Feuer?"

"Yes!" the fire girl replied excitedly, standing with her arms spread out to either side. "Turn it on, turn it on!"

Closing her eyes tightly, Bubblegum held her breath and squeezed the handle of the canister, dousing Flame Princess with a blast of liquid oxygen and powdered magnesium. The little elemental lit up as bright as the sun as the oxygen reacted violently with her physiology, bathing her in intense white flame which immediately vapourised all traces of sugar from her hands and clothes. The blast of heat which came off her nearly knocked Bubblegum off her feet, but the reaction only lasted for moments before burning out.

Setting the canister down and making sure that the valve on the top was completely closed, Bubblegum turned towards Flame Princess… and stared in shock. The little elemental was completely clean, which she'd expected, but she was also hovering about four feet off the ground and laughing. That had never happened before. Then Bubblegum's eyes narrowed in suspicion, it couldn't be… but who else could be responsible?

"Marceline, are you insane? I know vampires aren't immune to fire, you could have been…" Her voice trailed off as she reached over Flame Princess to where Marceline's shoulders would have been if she was holding the little elemental, but nothing was there. Frowning, Bubblegum waved a hand behind the fire girl, then on either side, above and beneath her, but didn't encounter anything. "Feuer… how are you doing that?"

"Don't know," Flame Princess replied, still giggling as she bobbed slightly in the air. "Who's Marceline?"

"That's not important, she isn't here." Even though Bubblegum's voice was casual, or at least as casual as it could be when her adopted daughter was hovering in front of her for no apparent reason, she still felt something twist painfully within her now that she was sure that this had nothing to do with the vampire. She told herself that it had been a logical connection to make; it didn't mean that she missed her; it would be just like Marceline to prank her like that. Focusing her attention back on Flame Princess, Bubblegum reached out to take hold of her by the shoulders and pushed her downwards experimentally.

Bubblegum frowned as she felt some kind of invisible resistance, as if Flame Princess was standing on thick rubber instead of thin air. Crouching, she looked more closely at the space between the fire girl's feet and the floor. At first she thought she'd imagined it, but there was definitely a heat haze there. Taking off one of her protective gloves, she cautiously moved one hand forwards into it, then snatched it back as superheated air scorched her fingers. "Feuer, don't move," she ordered, then ran back into her lab to retrieve a flashlight.

To Bubblegum's relief, Flame Princess was still in exactly the same position when she returned, but was no longer laughing, now starting to look a little worried. "I want down!" she wailed, flailing her arms as if she was trying to do the opposite of flying.

"Shhhhh sweetie, it's okay, there's got to be an explanation for this," Bubblegum said comfortingly, shining the flashlight at the space between Flame Princess and the floor. "Just let me figure it out." She could now see the shadows of the heat currents on the wall behind the little elemental as the light from the torch was refracted by the heated air, and they were moving in an inverted cone pointed towards the floor. It seemed that Flame Princess' combustions levels had reached a point where she could generate her own jet propulsion.

"Feuer, do you think you can cool down?" Bubblegum asked, trying not to sound as doubtful as she felt. The little elemental was clearly getting upset, which would only make her burn hotter. "It's your heat that's keeping you up there sweetie, if you cool down you should land."

"Don't wanna fall!" Flame Princess replied, sounding afraid now. "Want down!"

"It's okay, I've got you." Taking hold of the little elemental beneath her arms firmly, Bubblegum gave her a reassuring smile. "You're not going to fall. You trust me, right?"

Flame Princess nodded, then seemed to concentrate. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flicked, she became a heavy weight in Bubblegum's arms, but the candy princess managed to lower her gently to the ground instead of dropping her. "There you go," she said comfortingly as she set her down. "Better now?"

The little elemental nodded, rubbing her eyes. "Tired," she grumbled. "Don't like floating."

"Well, let's get you to bed then." Picking Flame Princess up, guessing that generating that much heat must have exhausted her, Bubblegum carried her to her room. It looked like she might need Lady Rainicorn's help again, since flying lessons were definitely beyond her own experience...


	7. Chapter 7

"Okay Feuer, are you ready?" Bubblegum asked, standing a short distance away from Flame Princess in the castle gardens. Lady Rainicorn was circling in the air above them, keeping a close eye on the little elemental.

Flame Princess looked doubtful, but seemed to be comforted by Lady's presence in addition to Bubblegum, she'd ridden on the rainicorn's back with the candy princess several times. "Don't wanna fall," she said worriedly. "Catch me?"

"Of course sweetheart," Bubblegum told her reassuringly. "Either me or Lady will catch you, I promise." She wasn't entirely sure that getting Flame Princess to practice her newfound flying skills was a good idea, but if she couldn't control them then the fire girl would be in more danger than anyone else.

Screwing her eyes shut, Flame Princess pointed both arms towards the ground. For a few seconds nothing happened, then she began to rise jerkily into the air. Cautiously cracking one eye open, she saw that she was barely a foot off the ground, and relaxed. This wasn't nearly as scary as she'd thought.

"That's very good, Feuer," Bubblegum's voice was warm and praising. "Can you come back down?" It would definitely be for the best if she encouraged the little elemental to stay low for now.

Flame Princess didn't reply, concentrating on her heat levels. She was still only a toddler, but she did understand that she could change her temperature; she'd learned that from playing with the toys Bubblegum had given her. Not enough heat didn't melt sugar, too much made it black and crispy and no good for painting or modelling.

Gradually sinking back down to the paved square, Flame Princess giggled, less nervous now that she knew she could get down. She rose again, faster this time, but stopped herself once she was shoulder-level with Bubblegum. "Flying!"

"Yes, yes you are," Bubblegum said with a smile. "Now… can you make yourself move towards me?"

There was a pause as Flame Princess frowned. "Don't know." She concentrated for a moment, then shot about twenty feet higher into the air with a squeal of shock. Lady Rainicorn launched herself after the little elemental, grabbing the back of her dress between her teeth as Flame Princess started to drop. Not realising that Lady had caught her and thinking that she was falling, the fire girl panicked and immediately launched herself even higher.

Watching from below, Bubblegum felt her insides clench with fear, it had been a terrible idea to do this outside, inside the worst that could have happened was that Flame Princess would hit the ceiling. Even though Lady Rainicorn was with the little elemental, what if she lost her grip? What if Flame Princess fell?

_…tumbling through empty space with a cry of fear to disappear into the toxic green sludge below with a sickening hiss as chemicals met flesh…_

Shaking the memory away violently, Bubblegum reminded herself that the toxic river was no longer a danger… though water could be just as deadly to Flame Princess as the sludge had been to Shoko. However, Lady Rainicorn was still holding tight to the fire girl as she hurtled upwards, trailing Lady's long, multi-coloured body behind her as easily as a gauze scarf. Lady's weight didn't seem to be slowing her at all.

There was a good reason for this; Lady was purposely using the sunlight's energy to support herself in the air. As far as Flame Princess was aware, she weighed nothing at all. Unlike the princess below, the rainicorn wasn't worried in the slightest, first flights were always haphazard and at least Flame Princess couldn't accidentally phase herself halfway through a tree then get stuck.

With a quick, whiplike motion Lady flicked herself upwards, releasing the little elemental's dress and taking a firm hold of her with her forelegs. _[Slow down,]_ she said firmly. She had always spoken her own language around Flame Princess, who had picked it up just as quickly as English. _[Don't be scared.]_

Flame Princess had been too frightened to even realise the rainicorn was with her, but started to calm as she heard her voice, her speed slowing as she cooled. Then she looked down. The little elemental was at least two hundred feet up now; she could see the gardens spread out below her like a brightly-patterned tablecloth. If Lady Rainicorn hadn't been holding her she would have most likely have shot upwards again in terror, but she had been this high with her before, only last time she'd been riding on her back. "Don't let go!"

Shifting around Flame Princess to hover in front of her, but still keeping hold of her, Lady laughed gently. _[You're keeping me up all by yourself. You're not going to fall.]_

"You promise?" The little elemental looked unsure, but she trusted the rainicorn just as much as she trusted Princess Bubblegum.

_[I promise,]_ Lady replied. Then, very slowly, she let Flame Princess go. The little elemental continued to hover in the air unsupported and laughed nervously _. [See? You got up here all by yourself. Look, you can see all of the Candy Kingdom from here.]_ The rainicorn kept talking to the fire girl as she slowly began to descend, her combustion levels dropping as she realised she wasn't in danger. _[There's the Gumball Guardians, there's the Cotton Candy Forest. You can even see the Grass Lands from here, look.]_

Looking in the direction Lady was pointing, Flame Princess saw rolling green hills and the silhouette of a gigantic tree against the sky. "Big tree." It slowly disappeared behind the walls of the Candy Kingdom as the little elemental sank back to earth, feeling tired and hungry now. She landed a few moments later, falling to the ground with a bump, but was immediately snatched up by Bubblegum, who hugged her tightly.

"Oh thank Grod you're all right!" The candy princess' relieved laughter was slightly hysterical. "I've had some really bad ideas in my time, but I think this one wins the prize, you could have been killed!"

Flame Princess looked up at her with some bemusement, not understanding why her mother was so upset. "I saw the Grass Lands," she announced proudly. "I was really high!"

_[And she was never in danger,]_ Lady Rainicorn added as she landed gracefully beside them. _[I was with her the whole time, you worry too much.]_

"But what if she'd gotten away from you?" Bubblegum demanded. "I never realised she was so fast, her flight doesn't work on the same principles as yours, it's obviously based on Newton's laws of motion, not physical constants..."

_[And does that mean she's faster than light?]_ Lady's question was rhetorical, she was perfectly aware of how her own flying ability worked and so was the princess, Bubblegum was just too panicked to realise that.

"Oh. Right," the candy princess said awkwardly. "Of course, I was forgetting. Sorry, Lady."

_[Not a problem,]_ the rainicorn replied. _[But I wouldn't let her practice outside unless I'm here, I don't think Morrow could keep up.]_

"I won't, don't worry about that." Looking down at Flame Princess, Bubblegum saw that the fire girl was drowsing in her arms, her head leaning on Bubblegum's shoulder. "I think it takes a lot out of her as well, it must use a lot of energy."

_[Same time tomorrow then?]_ Lady queried. _[The more she practices, the quicker she'll get the hang of it. Flying is just like walking, once she learns she'll never forget. It just starts out a bit clumsy and awkward.]_

The two of them turned and headed back towards the castle, Bubblegum still carrying Flame Princess. "How old were you when you learned to fly?" Bubblegum asked curiously.

_[About two and a half hours,]_ Lady replied. _[But it's different for rainicorns...]_


	8. Chapter 8

Reaching into the canister of candy biomass, Bubblegum scooped out another double handful of the gelatinous pink substance and set it on the worktop beside the other four, looking at them critically. She'd been keeping it around for emergencies since she'd had no real use for it in centuries; it was all that remained of her original form. The last time she'd used it on herself had been about eight hundred years ago now, but that wouldn't be a problem. Kept in this state, the biomass never aged or deteriorated.

"Are you sure you want to do this Peebs?" Peppermint Butler asked, holding the canister up as the princess collected another portion of biomass from it. "You've been eighteen for... a really long time now. Why change that?"

"Because it's not seemly for a teenager to have a child," Bubblegum replied, taking a step back to consider the six lumps of biomass before her. Each would age her by a year if her calculations were correct. "Flame Princess is going to be four soon, so I need to do this now before people start asking awkward questions."

Peppermint Butler privately thought that the awkward questions would probably be about Flame Princess' parentage rather than Bubblegum's age, but he kept that to himself. "Princess, you do recall what I said when you first brought her back here, don't you? About getting attached? And you said it was just for science? How's your position on that these days?"

There was a long pause, then Bubblegum looked down at the mint man with a sigh. "Fine. So I'm attached. She's as much my daughter as any candy citizen. Happy?"

"Then I was right?" Peppermint asked eagerly, his eyes lighting up.

The candy princess sighed again, rolling her eyes. "Yes Pepbutt, you were right. Is that what you want to hear?"

_"Ugh, fine, you were right Peppermint," Death grumbled as he looked glumly at his overturned king on the chessboard. "Taking your bishop was a bad move."_

_"You were right, Pepper," Hunson Abadeer said as he watched the golf ball soar out of the fire trap. "The nine iron was better for that shot than the sand wedge."_

_"You were right, man..." Prismo leaned back in the hot tub as the water bubbled gently. At least it looked like he was leaning; it was hard to tell since he was two-dimensional. "I totally needed one of these."_

"P-Butt? Peppermint? Hello?!" The mint man snapped out of his nostalgic reverie as he realised Bubblegum was talking to him.

"Oh, apologies milady," he said, adjusting his grip on the canister that had slowly been tipping backwards over his shoulder and tilting it towards the princess. She took one last handful of the biomass, put it next to the rest, then nodded to herself.

"That should do it," she said in satisfaction. "You can put that down now Pepbutt."

Gratefully setting the canister down, Peppermint snapped the lid back into place and sealed it, pushing it under the workbench to keep it out of harm's way. He watched with interest as Bubblegum coated the underside of each quivering lump of biomass with liquid glucose, then pressed it into her hair until she had a series of odd-looking bumps encircling her head like a corona. He thought it looked ridiculous. "So, uh, what now Peebs?" he asked curiously. "I mean, I like you and all but that's not going to be enough to catalyse the reaction and Marceline isn't here so..." His voice trailed off as the princess glared at him.

"I know what I'm doing, Peppermint," Bubblegum stated through gritted teeth. "And Marceline only helped with this once, I had to age myself plenty of times before that."

"Ohhhhhh," the mint man said, understanding. "I thought it needed love like... well, you know."

"It doesn't." Bubblegum replied shortly. "Or I'd have been stuck at thirteen for a really, really long time..."

o.o.o.o.o

Outside in the gardens, Flame Princess was playing at aerial tag with Lady Rainicorn, a game that the rainicorn had taught her to improve her flying. After several weeks of learning and encouragement the little elemental had quickly learned to use her new ability, once she had grasped that she needed to direct heat in the opposite direction from where she wanted to go. Landing was still a little awkward, and several scorched furrows in the grass marked particularly bad ones, but it was gradually improving.

_[Too slow, little princess!]_ Looping around the giggling fire girl, Lady shot upwards with the little elemental close behind. Flame Princess could move extremely fast in the air, though only for short bursts, and as the rainicorn gracefully arced to one side she shot beneath her and tapped her nose.

"Tag!" Flame Princess crowed as she launched herself straight up into the air. Despite her initial wariness, she had decided that flying was a lot of fun, even if her mother couldn't join in. As Lady Rainicorn came after her, the little elemental quickly changed direction and darted off diagonally towards the ground, then turned sharply to the right, laughing the entire time.

Unlike Flame Princess, Lady's speed was only limited by the amount of sunlight available to her, she could easily have caught the fire girl but instead let her get further away. It wouldn't be any fun for either of them if she kept catching her in a couple of seconds after all. The rainicorn didn't want the little elemental to exhaust herself either, the faster she travelled the sooner she seemed to run out of energy. As she looped lazily after Flame Princess, Lady heard Bubblegum's voice below them, and looked down to see her stepping out onto the lawn with Peppermint Butler behind her. It looked like she'd done something strange with her hair.

"Mommy!" Descending to the ground, Flame Princess managed to land on her feet for once, and ran towards Bubblegum with her arms outstretched, just as she'd done the day the candy princess had first found her in the woods.

Dropping down to one knee, Bubblegum caught the little elemental in both arms and hugged her tightly. If she'd had any lingering doubts about whether she genuinely did love her like a daughter, they would have vanished as she felt her entire body tingle and shudder. The reaction could only take place if the love was mutual.

Bubblegum had never aged herself by more than a year at a time, so seven was quite a jump. It felt like she was being stretched, painfully, her molecular structure warping momentarily as the candy biomass was absorbed into her body. Then it was over, and she slowly got back to her feet, carrying Flame Princess with her.

"Huh," she said in mild surprise as she looked down at herself. "Didn't realise I'd get taller…"

o.o.o.o.o

"Flying?" Flame King demanded, smashing a fist down on the arm of his throne. "That's ridiculous, that little ember couldn't possibly have that kind of power."

The messenger, the same one whom the elemental king had ordered to take his daughter to the surface and abandon her there, didn't look up from where he was kneeling. "Uhhhh… well… she was certainly in the air sire. Maybe she was falling. Upwards."

Flame King scowled at the servant, but chose not to answer that. "I should have had her dropped in Iceberg Lake instead," he muttered. "But at least if she's being raised by the gum princess she won't grow up to be a threat. Though she's still quite small, so it would still be easy to throw her in the lake… hmmmm…"

The messenger shuddered at the thought. "But… what if the gum princess won't give her back now?" he asked hesitantly.

"Then I'll just take her," Flame King replied casually. "She's mine after all. Then again…" He rubbed his chin as he reconsidered. "…that sounds a lot like effort. And she could still accidentally torch the entire gum kingdom, which would still make it mine. Eh, forget the whole thing." He sighed, leaning back in his throne. "Being a parent is hard."

"Oh, uhm, that reminds me…" the messenger began nervously. "Your son is here and…"

"Has he conquered the Nightosphere yet?" Flame King demanded.

"No, but…" The servant fell silent as Flame King made a sharp, dismissive gesture.

"Then send him away! Always knew that boy was a loser…"


	9. Chapter 9

"And you're SURE that you can handle this Peppermint?" Princess Bubblegum glared sternly at the mint man, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Because I can always just give the other royals my apologies or send a representative. This is only a preparatory meeting; the actual Grand Meeting of Ooo Royalty isn't for another six years."

"Oh it'll be fine Peebs," Peppermint Butler replied dismissively. "Flame Princess is way easier to handle now anyway." Which was true, the little elemental was six years old now and her control over her powers had improved immensely as she'd gotten older. Over the last year she had only set things on fire when she'd intended to, and none of those things had been sentient.

"That doesn't mean you can just ignore her." The princess didn't appear to be convinced of Peppermint's capabilities, obviously remembering the last time she'd left Flame Princess in his care. "You still need to keep an eye on her and make sure she does her training exercises. And don't let her stay up late either. Or go flying outside the castle grounds."

"Milady, I have no intention of ignoring her!" Peppermint tried to sound wounded by the accusation, but Bubblegum's sceptical look told him she hadn't fallen for it in the slightest. "Look, I know what happened last time I watched her, believe me, I remember. But that was what, nearly six years ago now? She won't end up stuck to a wall this time, I promise."

The candy princess glared at him for a few more moments, then sighed. "She'd better not. Ugh, why did Lady have to be visiting her parents in the Crystal Dimension this week instead of next…" Despite Peppermint's reassurances she was still extremely sceptical about letting him babysit, even if it was only for half a day. She'd be back at the palace by nightfall, and if she hadn't had concerns about whether Flame King would appear at this meeting she would just have missed it. He didn't usually attend these gatherings and most times didn't even bother to send a representative, but there was a first time for everything. Bubblegum had even considered taking Flame Princess with her, but if her father did turn up then she didn't think that would end well.

Princess Bubblegum hadn't heard from the elemental king at all for the past six years. He must have known that his daughter was still with her in the Candy Kingdom, but didn't seem to have any interest in checking up on her, or speaking to her, or anything. Most of the time she was glad that he hadn't done anything to interfere, or made any attempt to take Flame Princess back. But there were times when his apparent indifference made her furious; the little elemental was a bright, affectionate child who had done nothing to deserve his callous treatment.

Sometimes the candy princess wondered what he'd have done with his daughter if she hadn't taken her away… would Flame Princess eventually have charmed her father like she had charmed her? Or would he not have cared and locked her up somewhere instead or just had her abandoned on the surface again? Bubblegum was reasonably sure that the latter was more likely, which only made her angrier. So if Flame King did turn up at this meeting with any intention of taking his daughter back, she was ready to fight him tooth and nail if necessary. But that did mean she had to be there in person.

"Okay Peppermint, I'm really not too sure about this, but I do have to go to this meeting," the princess said eventually with a frustrated growl. "But I want you to promise - ROYAL promise - that you are going to take good care of Flame Princess while I'm gone. Okay?"

"A Royal promise?" The mint man did his best not to look anxious at the prospect, laughing nervously. "Oh come on Peebs, isn't that a bit extreme?" The look he got from the candy princess was a clear answer to that question. "Oh, all right," he grumbled. "I royally swear to look after Flame Princess while you're gone."

"And not just hand her over to Cinnamon Bun?" Bubblegum asked pointedly.

"And not just hand her over to Cinnamon Bun," he repeated mechanically. "Though she does seem to like him for some reason."

"I know she does," the princess replied. "He makes her laugh. But Cinnamon Bun is definitely not responsible enough to watch her without being supervised himself, understood?"

"Yes milady," Peppermint sighed. "Everything will be fine. Do you want me to get a carriage ready for you?"

"No, I'm going to take the Morrow; the carriage is too slow to get me back by tonight." The princess was now gathering up the items she'd need for the meeting, her notebook and pens, a draft copy of the nonaggression pact she'd written out for Bear Princess and Tree Princess and her notes from the last pre-meeting. "I'll just go and say goodbye to Feuer," she told Peppermint as she slung a satchel over her shoulder. "Remember, I'm trusting you with my daughter. Don't let me down."

"Of course not Peebs," Peppermint replied reassuringly. "Nothing will go wrong."

Half an hour later, the Morrow was perched on the balcony outside Bubblegum's bedroom, preening his flight feathers in preparation for the journey. The candy princess was crouched by the railings, giving Flame Princess a goodbye hug. The little elemental hadn't been entirely happy about her mother leaving without her, but Bubblegum had promised she would be back by the next morning.

"Can't I fly with you for a while?" Flame Princess asked, clinging tightly to the candy princess. "Just to the gates?"

"No Feuer," Bubblegum told her gently. "No flying outside the castle grounds without Lady Rainicorn, you know that. You need to stay here with Pepbutt, okay?"

"Okay," the little elemental said in resignation, slowly letting go of the candy princess and stepping back to stand beside Peppermint Butler. She watched as Princess Bubblegum vaulted onto the railing then climbed onto the Morrow's back, and waved to her mother enthusiastically.

Settling down between the giant hawk's wings, Bubblegum waved back. "I'll see you in the morning Feuer. Be a good girl, okay?"

"Yes mommy," Flame Princess responded. "Have a nice boring adult meeting!" Clearly she'd taken the description of where the candy princess was going quite literally.

Laughing, Bubblegum gave the Morrow's neck plumage a gentle pull. "Okay Morrow, let's go." With an affirmative screech, the bird launched itself into the sky like an arrow and circled the palace once, then headed south towards the Bad Lands. Flame Princess continued to wave until the hawk was a speck on the horizon, then followed Peppermint Butler inside.

o.o.o.o.o

Far from the Candy Kingdom, someone else was watching Princess Bubblegum depart, standing on the ramparts of a dark grey castle perched on a mountaintop. Looking through a telescope, they followed the Morrow's flight for a few seconds to make sure it wasn't going to return, then shifted to the Candy Castle itself, focusing on the two figures standing on the balcony. The servile mint was beneath his notice, but beside him was the usurper.

"Unacceptable," Lemongrab snarled to himself, glaring hate at the wretched little elemental through the telescope's lens. "UNACCEPTABLE!"

Hurling the viewing instrument from the battlements as if it had offended him, which it had by showing him the intruder in the palace that was his by right, Lemongrab stormed off to fetch his camel. Mother Princess wouldn't be back until nightfall, attending the meeting to which he, the Earl of Lemongrab, more royal than the rest of them put together, had not been invited. That gave him ample time to resolve this most unacceptable situation in the kingdom that he, and only he, was due to inherit. And Lemongrab wasn't about to let some unwanted brat from the Fire Kingdom get in his way.


	10. Chapter 10

The caramel shapes on the tile were easily recognisable now; Flame Princess's artistic skills had developed and improved in direct proportion to her control of her combustion levels. She no longer needed the heated palette to melt sugar for her; instead she had a range of jars containing dyed sugar crystals in every colour of the rainbow. The tile that the little elemental used as a canvas was the same, but the long-handled spoon for picking up molten sugar had been replaced by a variety of special tools that Princess Bubblegum had designed for her.

Picking up some red and yellow sugar in a shallow ladle, Flame Princess concentrated, channelling heat through the metal until the sugar crystals melted. Mixing the colours into a deep orange with a copper stylus, she carefully gathered some of the molten sugar in the groove that had been stamped into the stylus and started to add it to her painting of the Candy Castle.

Blocking in the main trunk of the tree that grew at the centre of the castle, Flame Princess gathered more liquid caramel on the stylus and started to add the branches, eyes narrowed in concentration. Keeping the molten sugar at the right temperature was easy, but dripping it onto the tile without distorting it was harder. Getting it off if she made a mistake was difficult.

Once she was happy with the tree, she dipped the ladle and stylus into the water pot which her mother had weighted to make sure it wouldn't tip over easily. As Flame Princess channelled more heat through the metal, the water began to bubble violently but the lip around the rim of the pot stopped it from splashing her as the tools were boiled clean. When she removed them from the water they rapidly steamed and dried, ready for the next colour.

Flame Princess was using a metal skewer to emboss some detail into the caramel tree shape while it was still soft when Peppermint Butler entered the room carrying a tray. "It'll be time for bed soon, Princess," he told her. "Your mother said I wasn't to let you stay up too late." He set the tray down beside her; on it were some chunks of charcoal, a small branch of ash wood and a couple of cookies. Flame Princess could consume the same food as candy people but although she liked it she didn't get much sustenance or energy from it. Charcoal and firewood were much better for her, even if she did think it was weird that nobody else seemed to eat those.

"Thanks Pepbutt," Flame Princess said gratefully, picking up a piece of charcoal which immediately started to glow a dull red as it burned away between her hands. Although painting didn't make her as hungry as flying did, it was still required a lot of energy as it required careful use and control of her combustion levels. "Mommy won't be back until after I'm asleep, will she?" the fire girl asked, dusting the ash from her hands before taking another chunk of charcoal.

"I'm afraid not milady," Peppermint replied, glancing at the picture she'd been making. As well as the Candy Castle itself there were small figures standing on balconies and at the door, he could make out Princess Bubblegum, Cinnamon Roll, Lady Rainicorn flying around one of the towers and a red and white shape that was obviously himself. Despite himself, the mint man had found that he had also grown fond of the little elemental, though admittedly that was much easier now that there wasn't so much chance of her inadvertently setting fire to him. "It's a long way back from the Bad Lands."

Peppermint Butler was also slightly concerned that Flame King might actually have turned up to this meeting, since Peebles wasn't always the best at keeping her temper. He was relatively sure that she'd have stopped short of declaring war if Flame King provoked her, but there would no doubt be some diplomatic tensions with the Fire Kingdom at the very least. But Flame Princess didn't need to know any of that, especially since the little elemental had no idea that Princess Bubblegum wasn't her real mother, so he kept those worries to himself.

Flame Princess had wandered over to the window and was looking out over the landscape below. "Are the Bad Lands this way?" she asked, shading her eyes from the setting sun as she peered into the distance.

"No Princess, they're to the south, that window faces west," Peppermint told her, walking over to the tower's south-facing window and opening it. "The Bad Lands are too far away to see from here, but they're this way…" He paused as he realised the little elemental wasn't listening, gazing out the other window at something he couldn't see.

"Who's that?" Flame Princess pointed downwards as Peppermint Butler came to stand beside her. Looking in that direction, the mint man's eyes widened as he saw the small figure that was rapidly growing larger as it grew closer. Even at this height, the silhouette was unmistakeable.

"What in Gob's name is he doing here?!" Peppermint yelped, getting a look of confusion from the fire girl.

"Who is he?" The little elemental sounded uncertain now, starting to get scared simply because she could see that Peppermint was afraid of whoever this person was.

"Oh, that's not important!" the mint man told her with false cheeriness. "It must just be… a juice delivery or something. Yes, lemon juice delivery. I'd better go take care of it!" Peppermint moved quickly to the door and opened it, then hesitated. "But you need to stay here milady, okay? Stay here, and don't come downstairs."

"Uhm… okay…" Flame Princess looked bewildered by the sudden urgency of the command, but Peppermint couldn't wait around to make sure she stayed put. From the speed Lemongrab had been riding at, he would be here in minutes and would most likely fly off the handle as soon as he discovered that Princess Bubblegum wasn't here, he was sure to take that as a personal insult.

Then again, Peppermint reconsidered as he rapidly descended the spiral staircase to the castle's main hall, maybe arriving while the candy princess was absent had been Lemongrab's intent all along.

o.o.o.o.o

"Announcing the arrival of the Earl of..." Manfried didn't get a chance to finish before he was interrupted by a shriek

"SILENCE!" The sheer force of Lemongrab's scream sent the piñata spinning dizzily on his wire. Dismounting his camel, the Earl strode forwards towards the main stair as the other candy people present scattered in fear but before he could set foot on it his path was blocked by Peppermint Butler.

"Good evening your Grace," Peppermint said with a polite bow and a nervous smile. "May I ask what brings you to the Candy Castle?"

"No," Lemongrab spat in response, then barged past him and started to climb the stairs.

"Sir, I must insist!" the mint man called, chasing after him with some difficulty given his much shorter legs. "If you wish to see Princess Bubblegum I'm afraid she is not here at present, but if you would care to wait here..."

"NO!" This time Lemongrab yelled the word, his head twisting around to glare balefully down at Peppermint Butler. "This will be my castle, MINE, and I do not justify myself to slaves!"

"Okay man, but right now it belongs to Princess Bubblegum and she left me in charge," Peppermint retaliated. Lemongrab seemed blissfully unaware of the candy princess' immortality but the mint man thought it would be best not to mention that little detail. "Now tell me what you want or I'll have the Banana Guards throw you out!" He said the last part with far more bravado than he actually felt, since he could see that Lemongrab had his sound sword belted at his waist, and knew that he had no qualms whatsoever about using it on others.

Halfway up the stairs, Lemongrab stopped dead in his tracks and turned abruptly to face the butler with a snarl. "I am royal!" he seethed, stalking down towards the servant menacingly. "ROYAL! You do not question me! NO QUESTIOOOOONS!" The last word turned into a drawn out scream directly into Peppermint's face, and the mint man started backing away.

"No questions, okay, I got it!" Holding up his hands placatingly, Peppermint continued to retreat until his back hit the far wall. "But Princess Bubblegum is still in charge here and she..."

"Is a TRAITOR!" Lemongrab finished for him in a high-pitched squeal. "A traitor! She replaces me, ME, with a non-candy aberration and I will not stand for it! WILL NOT STAAAAND!"

"An aberra... Oh, you mean Flame Princess?" Peppermint asked helpfully, wondering how Lemongrab had only found out about her now.

"AN ABERRATION!" Lemongrab shrieked, furious at the reminder that the little elemental technically outranked him as she was still a princess. "A USURPER! Mother Princess coddles it, but does she coddle ME? Coddle Lemongrab? NO!" The earl's face was the very picture of insulted outrage, which struck Peppermint as more than a little odd.

"Uhh, dude, the last time she tried to visit you, you wouldn't let her in and threw half the kitchen at her..." the mint man pointed out, then flinched as Lemongrab's expression darkened even further.

"LIES!" he shouted furiously. "All lies to discredit poor Lemongrab! Always lies!"

Now it was Peppermint's turn to glare since he knew exactly what had happened on that disastrous visit, for one very good reason. "I was there, man!" he snapped. "You hit me with a blender!"

o.o.o.o.o

_"…don't care if you're the Lord of Evil, you still gotta ante up…" Peppermint Butler mumbled groggily as Princess Bubblegum shook him. He opened his eyes to see the candy princess crouched over him with her back to Castle Lemongrab, shielding him from any further missiles. "Did I just get hit with a blender?" he asked, groaning as his head throbbed._

_"You did, yes," Bubblegum replied, her eyes darting across to where the appliance had landed after ricocheting off the mint man. "I'm sorry Peppermint; I should have come here by myself." Her expression was a mixture of sadness and guilt. "Maybe he wouldn't have reacted so badly if it had just been me."_

_Personally, Peppermint doubted that, but chose not to comment on it as he stumbled back to his feet. "What now, milady? Has he calmed down at all?"_

_"I think he might have run out of things to throw." Looking back towards the ramparts of the castle, Bubblegum could see that Lemongrab had vanished from sight. "Or he's stopped throwing them. Either way, you need to get back to the Candy Kingdom; I'll go in and talk to him."_

_"Peebs, that's crazy!" Peppermint's words came out as a shrill, anxious squawk. "You can't go in there yourself; you don't know what he'll do!"_

_"I don't think he'll hurt me Pepbutt," Bubblegum reassured him. "If he's stopped throwing things then that's a good…" The two of them were sprayed with earth as a microwave tore a furrow into the ground beside them with a crash and shriek of metal, followed by the sounds of incomprehensible screaming from the battlements. "Well, I still don't think he'll hurt me," the princess continued with a sigh. "You get out of here; I'll be back after- augh!"_

_With a dull, meaty 'thuk', a carving fork had plunged into Bubblegum's left shoulder, thrown with full intent and raging hatred. Peppermint Butler stared wide-eyed at the two metal prongs jutting from her sleeve, it had gone right through._

_"I stand corrected," Bubblegum said through gritted teeth. "Time to run." Without further ado, she picked up Peppermint with her good arm and started sprinting down the mountain path as more cutlery rained down around them._

o.o.o.o.o

Lemongrab scowled at the infuriating little mint man, vaguely remembering him now. "Well I did not wish a visit at that time!" he said sharply. Not defensively, since in his mind he had done nothing wrong, simply as if he was stating an indisputable fact. "Mother Princess abandoned me!"

Peppermint Butler was about to tell Lemongrab exactly what he thought 'Mother Princess' should do to him, which was very similar to what Ms Abadeer had wanted to do with him, but before he could he heard something that made his heart sink into his boots.

"What's all the yelling?" Flame Princess' curiosity had gotten the better of her and she had decided to investigate the strange sounds coming from the main hall despite Peppermint's instructions. Neither Lemongrab nor Peppermint had heard her on the stairs, mainly because she had levitated down over them rather than descended them. Lemongrab immediately whipped round to face her and scowled darkly.

"So. The cuckoo in the nest. MY NEST, LITTLE CUCKOO!" As Lemongrab stalked towards Flame Princess with unnerving purpose the little elemental drew back slightly, intimidated by his height and venomous expression. "You have no place here fire brat, this is mine. MIIIIIIIINE!"

To Peppermint Butler's never-ending disappointment, Flame Princess didn't immediately explode into flames as the earl shrieked at her. Princess Bubblegum had taught her too well for that; she knew she wasn't to react with fire when she was frightened. Instead she shrank further back from Lemongrab with wide, bewildered eyes. Nobody had ever spoken to her like that in her entire life and she didn't know how to respond.

"But I live here," she said eventually in a small voice, not understanding why the stranger was so angry. "It's my mommy's castle and…" Whatever else Flame Princess might have said was immediately drowned out by Lemongrab's outraged shriek.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!" The earl's face twisted in rage and disgust at the very thought that Mother Princess could have spawned a filthy, common little elemental. It was obviously an insult directed at him and a threat to his inheritance. "You lie, fire brat! SHE'S NOT YOUR…" It was Lemongrab's turn to be interrupted for once, as Peppermint Butler hit him as hard as he could with a broom that a terrified servant had dropped earlier.

"Hey! Back off, man!" Peppermint ordered, continuing to swing the broom at Lemongrab. "She's just a kid!" The first warning sign that this perhaps hadn't been the mint man's best course of action was Lemongrab's ominously prolonged intake of breath followed by a metallic slither as the earl drew his sound sword. The weapon blazed into life as Lemongrab screeched in rage, and a single lash of its sonic blade reduced the broom to splinters.

"UNACCEPTABLE! You dare to strike me? YOU DAAAAAAARE?!" Snatching hold of Peppermint's shirt collar, Lemongrab hauled him up to his eye-level, shark teeth bared and snarling. The mint man had seen an awful lot of donked up things in his time, the Nightosphere, the Dead Worlds, ghosts, demons. He'd played chess with Death and won, played golf with Lord Abadeer and lost, repeatedly, but he had never been quite as intimidated as he was right at this moment. "YOU! PUNISHMENT! DUNGEON! RECONDITIONING!"

"YOU PUT HIM DOWN!" Flame Princess' shout was almost as loud as Lemongrab's, and actually managed to get the earl's attention. Twisting his head a full one hundred and eighty degrees without any apparent discomfort, he bared jagged teeth at her.

"Make me!" Lemongrab hissed, low and malignant, then his voice rose to a maddened howl once more. "MAKE ME, FIRE BRAT!"

Flame Princess glared at him defiantly, knowing that what she was about to do was wrong, but so was terrorising poor Peppermint like that. Making her mind up, she screwed up her face in concentration and screamed at him.

To his vast surprise, Lemongrab suddenly found that he was on fire.


	11. Chapter 11

It was fully dark by the time the Morrow landed on the balcony adjoining the royal bedroom, and Princess Bubblegum yawned deeply as she dismounted. "Thanks Morrow," she said gratefully, stroking the bird's neck feathers. "You better go get some rest, you must be exhausted." The giant hawk launched itself from the railing with a squawk, circling upwards towards its roost on the castle's highest spire as Bubblegum went inside.

Setting her satchel down on the desk, Bubblegum took out her notes, and the somewhat tattered nonaggression pact which now needed amendments. As usual, Bear Princess and Tree Princess had been unable to come to an agreement, though it had now been impressed on the ursine ruler that tipping over sentient trees was bad, as was chewing on Bubblegum's papers. Bear Princess didn't understand reading, but she did understand being smacked on the nose with a rolled-up agenda.

Thankfully that had been the only drama at the meeting as once again Flame King hadn't turned up or sent someone in his stead. Although that was hardly surprising, Bubblegum was still greatly relieved. It also wasn't surprising that Marceline hadn't bothered to attend either since the vampire had no concept of responsibility whatsoever. Bubblegum didn't want to see her anyway, definitely not; it wasn't like Marceline's absence worried at her like a loose tooth or anything. Wherever she was, she would no doubt be doing something irresponsible and distasteful and the candy princess was going to stop thinking of her right now. Taking a deep breath, Bubblegum cleared her mind, then realised she could smell burning.

As the scent was faint and she hadn't seen any smoke rising from the castle, the candy princess wasn't unduly worried. Flame Princess had probably just scorched some of the sugar she liked to paint with, that wasn't unusual. Maybe she'd accidentally left something smouldering, but since Bubblegum always checked on the little elemental before going to bed herself, she would soon find out.

Flame Princess' room was close to Bubblegum's, so it only took a few seconds for her to reach it once she stepped out into the corridor. The smell of burning was stronger here, but still not worryingly so. What was starting to concern the candy princess was that it didn't smell of burning sugar, but what else could it be in the Candy Kingdom?

Opening the door to the little elemental's room, Bubblegum went inside. To her relief nothing was burning; the only glow was coming from the bed in the centre of the room. Perhaps the smell was lingering from earlier; everything seemed to be fine. The candy princess paused as she caught sight of the tile Flame Princess used for her paintings and went closer to examine it, smiling gently as she saw the tiny representations of herself, Lady Rainicorn, Peppermint Butler and the other castle inhabitants.

The bed itself was more like an oversized campfire than a sleeping place; Princess Bubblegum had designed it based on her knowledge of the Fire Kingdom and previous elemental visitors. Large logs of slow-burning wood surrounded a central pit of soft ash that Flame Princess had burrowed into, covered by a red firecloth blanket. At first Bubblegum thought the little elemental was asleep, but as she crept over to check on her, Flame Princess lifted her head to look round at her.

"You should be sleeping, Feuer," Bubblegum told her softly. "Were you waiting for me to get back?" The little princess nodded but didn't answer or meet the candy princess' gaze, looking away guiltily. "Is something wrong?" Bubblegum asked with a note of concern in her voice, it wasn't like Flame Princess to behave like this. The fire girl shifted awkwardly beneath her blanket, pulling it closer around herself.

"…I did something bad…" she whispered eventually. "But I'm sorry."

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Bubblegum replied reassuringly, guessing that this might be why the castle smelled of burning. "Why don't you tell me what happened? I promise I won't get mad…"

o.o.o.o.o

"Good evening Princess," Peppermint Butler said cheerfully as he saw the candy princess descending the grand stair. The main hall was spotless thanks to an hour of frantic cleaning and sweeping. The princess would never know what had happened.

"Evening Pepbutt," Bubblegum replied, without the slightest trace of suspicion. "How were things while I was gone?"

"Fine, fine," the mint man replied airily. "Flame Princess was no trouble at all. How was the meeting? I take it Flame King never appeared?"

"No, he never did. The worst part was trying to talk sense into Bear Princess," Bubblegum said with a grimace. "She just doesn't understand why Tree Princess gets so angry with her for using her trees as marking posts; apparently that's a very important cultural thing for bears."

"I'll never understand why she can't just use a noticeboard like everyone else," Peppermint commented. "Or why Tree Princess' subjects can't wear a sash or something to identify them as sentient trees given the amount of diplomatic incidents that happen when one of them gets chopped down for firewood…"

"Ugh, tell me about it," the candy princess groaned. "The Marauders made a boat out of one of them last month, Tree Princess was pretty angry about that too."

Although his expression hadn't shown it, Peppermint had been wound as tightly as a spring when he'd first seen the princess, but he was gradually relaxing now that it seemed that she had believed him when he'd said there had been no problems. "Would you like me to make some tea and run you a bath?" he asked politely. "It sounds like you could do with some relaxation."

"That would be wonderful," Bubblegum said gratefully, but then the tone of her voice abruptly hardened. "Right after you tell me about what happened with Lemongrab. You WERE planning to tell me about that, weren't you?"

Peppermint started sharply at the question, but tried to laugh it off. "Lemongrab? What about Lemongrab milady? I haven't seen him since that last time you tried to pay him a visit, you know, with the whole being hit with a blender and carving fork in the shoulder thing?"

Folding her arms, Bubblegum glared down at him sternly. "Then what's this I hear about Flame Princess setting him on fire?"

"Oh, has Cinnamon Bun been making up stories again?" Peppermint asked with a dismissive wave. "That's ridiculous, only he could make up such nonsense…"

"It wasn't Cinnamon Bun," the candy princess said shortly. "Feuer told me about it herself. Because she felt guilty about keeping it a secret."

Well, that certainly blew large holes in Peppermint Butler's cover story, and he immediately changed tack. "Hey, it was self-defence, and he totally had it coming!" His tone was now distinctly defensive. "It's not her fault Peebs, if you'd been there…"

"I wasn't!" Bubblegum interrupted him with a sharp, commanding gesture. "That's why I want you to tell me exactly what happened."

"Fine," Peppermint sighed. "It was like this…"

o.o.o.o.o

_As the flames enveloped Lemongrab, Peppermint Butler closed his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth, bracing himself for when they spread to him. But although he could feel their heat washing over him and hear Lemongrab screaming, he didn't feel any burning. He cracked one eye open and saw to his amazement that the fire ended abruptly at the earl's wrists, leaving him completely unharmed._

_"You put him down and you go away!" Flame Princess shouted, stamping a small foot as if she was trying to frighten off a mouse._

_For once, Lemongrab did exactly as he was told, hurling the mint man at the little elemental with a shriek of agonised rage. The impact bowled both of them over, and when Peppermint looked up he saw that the earl had fled into the garden, still on fire, still flailing, his camel chasing after him with an anxious bray. Reaching the fountain, Lemongrab hurled himself into it, the flames around him hissing softly as they were extinguished. Beside Peppermint, Flame Princess flinched as if she'd been struck, then took his hand as he helped her back to her feet._

_"Thank you Princess," Peppermint said, with genuine gratitude. Out in the garden, Lemongrab's scorched head emerged from the fountain and he snarled at the two of them from the safety of the water._

_"TRAITORS! DECIEVERS! MISCREANTS!" Although he was still furious, Lemongrab was obviously reconsidering any further attack on them. "When I am the rightful king, you'll both go to the dungeon! INFINITY DUNGEON!"_

_"Oh go and boil your head!" Peppermint retorted, watching as the earl climbed painfully back onto his camel and hauled its head around to face the west. With one last menacing scream, Lemongrab kicked the poor beast in its sides as hard as he could, and it set off at a gallop in the direction of the mountains where the earl's castle was located. "And good riddance too!" the mint man added, slamming the castle doors closed._

_He turned round to see that Flame Princess had sunk down to sit on the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them as she gazed downwards despondently._

_"Princess?" Peppermint asked anxiously, wondering if Lemongrab had hurt her somehow. "Are you all right?"_

_"Mommy's going to be so angry with me," Flame Princess said quietly. "She said I was never, ever to set fire to someone."_

_"Well, you had a very good reason," the mint man told her firmly. "Besides," he continued with a conspiratorial smirk. "I won't tell her if you don't."_

o.o.o.o.o

"So you WEREN'T going to tell me then," Princess Bubblegum commented as Peppermint Butler finished relating the evening's events to her. "Peppermint, I need to know this kind of thing, it's really, really important. I didn't know Flame Princess could set things on fire without touching them, and if I don't know what she can do, I can't help her learn to control it."

"Okay Peebs," the mint man sighed. "Next time I'll…" He paused as he realised the princess hadn't been yelling. "Wait, you're not angry?"

"I can't blame you for what Flame Princess did," Bubblegum replied, sighing. "And I can't really blame Feuer either, she was trying to protect you and Lemongrab didn't really give her an alternative." The princess moved over to a window, running one hand through her hair and tugging at a handful of it in frustration. "I wish I knew what to do about him. What was it he was screaming about?"

While Peppermint Butler had some very good ideas about what the princess should do with Lemongrab, he decided to keep those to himself and just answer her question for now. "He thinks you've replaced him with Flame Princess. That you abandoned him."

"Abandoned him?" Bubblegum's voice was equal parts angry and hurt. "He won't let me near him! You saw what happened last time, he's alone in his castle because that's what he wants, he could leave it at any time! He never replies to my letters, never responds to invitations, throws things at me when I try to see him…"

"And he thinks Flame Princess is a threat to him inheriting the throne of the Candy Kingdom," Peppermint put in helpfully. "That's the main reason he was angry."

"Oh that is just ridiculous!" The candy princess sounded almost as outraged as Lemongrab had earlier. "He's not even the heir to the Candy Kingdom! Because there isn't one!"

"Yeah, I know that, you know that," the mint man began. "But he thinks that since you're his mother, he's heir to the kingdom."

"That still makes no sense!" Bubblegum exclaimed. "Grod, technically I'm just about everyone's mother here. And most of you have been around longer than him. Heck, YOU would be way closer to inheriting the throne than he is, Pepbutt." Seeing the look on his face at those words, the princess continued quickly. "Never gonna happen, don't even think about it."

"Yes milady." Peppermint sighed, disappointed but not surprised. "Soooo… no hard feelings about not telling you Lemongrab got set on fire?" The mint man knew that particular mental image was going to stick with him for quite some time, mainly because he enjoyed it so much.

"Just don't keep anything like that a secret," the princess said firmly. "Flame Princess needs to be able to control her powers, and keeping them hidden won't help anyone. Especially not her, she needs to understand that just because her powers can be dangerous, that doesn't make her bad. She just needs to be responsible." Turning around, the candy princess started to climb the stairs, then looked back towards Peppermint Butler. "Oh, tea and a bath would be great Pepbutt. I'll be in the lab."

"The lab?" Peppermint asked, somewhat perplexed.

"Yes," Bubblegum replied as she continued up the stairs. "If Feuer can shoot fire now, I'll need to design something she can use for target practice…"


	12. Chapter 12

"Oh my Glob Peebs, this is like so totally scandalous!" Princess Bubblegum nearly dropped the beaker she was holding in surprise as Lumpy Space Princess soared through the open window, something that only Marceline had been rude enough to do before now. "Oh hey FP," she added as she flew over the fire girl.

"Hey LSP!" Flame Princess replied cheerfully, plucking Science out of the sugar maze she'd been making. Letting the candy corn rat run up her arm to perch on her shoulder, she followed Lumpy Space Princess over to her mother. "What does scandalous mean?"

"It means this might not be something that's suitable for little girls to be hearing," Princess Bubblegum said with a stern look towards the purple princess. She'd already had to explain some very awkward things to Flame Princess thanks to Lumpy Space Princess' gossiping. Particularly where relationships were concerned.

"Nah, it's totes okay this time, geez," Lumpy Space Princess rolled her eyes, remembering the long lecture she'd gotten about inappropriate topics to speak about in front of seven year-olds. "It's not about getting boys, or cheating or Brad. But it is totally, ultra scandalous you guys." She paused, seeming to inflate as if she was about to explode from the sheer sensationalism of the news. "They caught the leader of that gang of thieves that's been stealing old ladies' purses and bikes and junk!"

"Oh," Bubblegum's response was distinctly underwhelmed. "Well, at least that means no more missing bikes."

"But that's not the super juicy part!" Lumpy Space Princess exclaimed. "The master thief turned out to be... Jake the Dog!"

This time Bubblegum did drop the beaker with a gasp of shock, the toughened glass breaking into several pieces as it hit the tiled floor. "Joshua the Dog's son? Oh Grod... that's awful! His poor parents, they must be so ashamed."

"Is Joshua the Dog the guy who fought all those demons with Billy?" Flame Princess asked. "And helped him beat the Lich King?"

"It was Billy's magic dog that was with him when he fought the Lich, but Joshua fought the demons with him, yes." Bubblegum replied, then Lumpy Space Princess cut in before she could say anything else.

"Yeah, Joshua the Dog is a huge lumping hero. He came into Lumpy Space to help my dad fight the space dragons and totally kicked their boing loins. And then there was the time he beat up the giant greenfly that were messing with Wildberry Princess, and he fought the dragon that stole Emerald Princess' emerald, and he saved Jungle Princess' jungle when Flame King tried to… ow!" Lumpy Space Princess glared at Bubblegum, rubbing her side where the other princess had elbowed her, hard. "Okay, I get it, geez. No talking about that guy. Anyway, Joshua the Dog is still a total awesome hero. And now his son is like totally disgracing him. The trial is gonna be a total DRAMABOMB!"

"The judge will probably want a princess jury," Bubblegum sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she looked down at her decorpsinator notes. "I so don't have time for this…"

"Well, it's okay for you Peebs," Lumpy Space Princess said indignantly. "I never get asked to be on a princess jury, it's totally not fair, you guys get to hear all the really scandalous stuff!"

"Can I be in the princess jury?" Flame Princess asked excitedly. "I'm a princess!"

"No Feuer, you're too young," the candy princess replied gently. "And LSP, when you're on a princess jury you're not allowed a cellphone and you can't talk about what happens until after the trial is over."

"Well that sucks," Lumpy Space Princess snorted. "What's the lumping point of knowing all the really juicy stuff if you can't tell anyone then?"

A knock at the door interrupted the conversation, and all three of them looked round to see Peppermint Butler enter the room carrying a scroll. "Princess, a courier just delivered this from the Grand High Judge at the Royal Congressional Hall, it's…"

"A summons for me to serve on the jury at the trial of Jake the Dog," Bubblegum finished for him. Peppermint blinked in surprise, impressed.

"Well… yes actually, that's exactly what it is," he admitted, nonchalantly tossing the scroll away over his shoulder. "And isn't it SUCH a terrible surprise? The son of Joshua the Dog, a common thief."

"No way guy, he's like a MASTER thief," Lumpy Space Princess corrected him. "But it is like SO shocking and stuff, I can hardly stand it! What do you think his mom will say about it?"

"Woah, hold it right there you two," Princess Bubblegum glared at both Peppermint Butler and Lumpy Space Princess disapprovingly. "Joshua and Margaret the Dogs aren't to blame here, and I won't have you talking about them like that in my presence."

Peppermint Butler and Lumpy Space Princess looked at each other, then back at Bubblegum as the purple princess spoke again. "Okay, so we'll do it elsewhere then," Lumpy Space Princess retorted. "You're such a buzzkill sometimes Peebs."

"Fine." Bubblegum said shortly. "I'll need to go and pack anyway, this could take days. I just hope they don't have Tree Princess on the jury," she added with a grimace. "It takes her at least a week to consider each charge."

As Peppermint Butler and Lumpy Space Princess left the room, the candy princess heard them immediately start to whisper in hushed voices as the door closed behind them and sighed. She didn't envy Joshua and Margaret one bit, since she knew that similar conversations would be taking place all over Ooo as the news spread across the land.

"Can I come too?" Flame Princess asked hopefully, looking up at her beseechingly. "I wanna see Joshua the Dog! Will Billy be there too?"

"Welllll…" Bubblegum drew the word out as she considered it, then nodded. "Okay, I guess you're old enough to come with me, but you won't be allowed to sit in on the trial, you wouldn't like it anyway, and I don't think Billy will be there. It is about time you were introduced to some of the other princesses though."

"Yay! Thanks mom!" The fire girl's expression lit up in excitement as she leapt into the air and stayed there, hugging the candy princess briefly and then doing a mid-air somersault as Science clung to her shoulder for dear life, squeaking in alarm. "Oh, sorry Science!" Flame Princess gently set the rat down on a workbench, then returned to her gleeful acrobatics. "This is going to be so awesome!"

Bubblegum couldn't help laughing at the girl's enthusiasm. "It's a trial Feuer, not the Carnival Kingdom. It's not really something to be excited about."

"But I get to go to one of your boring adult things with you!" Flame Princess didn't seem deterred in the slightest. "And I get to go to the Bad Lands, and the Royal Congressional Hall, and meet other princesses, and Joshua the Dog and I know you said Billy probably wouldn't be there, but he might be, right?"

"I suppose he might be," the candy princess admitted. "He is good friends with Joshua so he might go to support him. It is serious though," she added soberly. "So I don't think they'll feel like talking to you or telling stories."

"Okay mom, I understand." Flame Princess replied, sinking back to the floor. "But it's still totally math! What are the other princesses like? Are they like you or like Lumpy Space Princess or are they completely different?"

"They're all different Feuer," Bubblegum explained. "Some are a bit like me, yes, and some are more like Lumpy Space Princess. But a lot of them aren't like either of us. They won't all be there, just the ones on the jury."

Now the candy princess was really hoping that Tree Princess wasn't going to be on the jury, if there was one thing the plant monarch disliked even more than seeing her people get tipped over by bears, it was fire elementals. She almost reconsidered her decision to let Flame Princess come with her then, but the fire girl was so excited that Bubblegum couldn't bring herself to change her mind. Besides, after the last trial that had Tree Princess on the jury had lasted six months due to her insistence on doing everything in tree time, the other princesses and the Grand High Judge had reached an informal agreement not to summon her for jury duty again.

Looking down at her daughter, Bubblegum rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "We'll need to pack a formal dress for you as well. First impressions are very important…"


	13. Chapter 13

"Dad? Why did mom run off crying when I asked her if Jake's coming home now?" The question that the small human boy had asked Joshua the Dog was just as innocent as it had been when he'd asked Margaret. But unlike his wife, Joshua managed to hide the painful emotions it had caused him.

"Well Finn, your mother's just a little hormonal at the moment," he lied. "All sorts of womanly things going on in there right now. Don't pay any attention to it, she'll be fine. As for your brother Jake," and here Joshua couldn't stop the anger from creeping into his voice, he knew if he didn't get angry he'd probably cry like Margaret. "Jake's been very naughty and might have to go away for a while."

"But he's been gone for months!" Finn protested, looking up at his adopted father with wide, sorrowful eyes. "I thought he was going to come home now. Aren't we here to get him?" The two dogs and the human boy were standing at the foot of the mountain that the Royal Congressional Hall was built on and partly into, at the foot of the steps leading to the main entrance.

Joshua breathed out a long, heavy sigh that seemed to take his anger with it. "I know son, but Jake's… been naughty. He might have to be grounded for a while. And not in his room."

Finn giggled at that, the severity of the situation flying right over his bear-capped head. "Jake's too big to be grounded, he's a teenager now!"

Despite himself, Joshua couldn't help smiling at his adopted son. "He's not that big m'boy, and he's not too big for a spanking neither. Now, why don't you run off and play while I have a word with Jermaine here? Just don't go out into the Bad Lands."

"Hey Finn, why don't we play Cloud Hunt?" Jermaine suggested before the little human could run off. "You go hide while I talk to Dad, then I'll come find you, okay?"

"Yay! I love Cloud Hunt!" Finn took off at top speed to find a hiding place, singing the rhyme Joshua had taught him as he went. "Over the mountain, the ominous cloud. Coming to cover the land in a shroud…"

"Remember to stop singing that once you're hiding," Jermaine called after him. "It makes it too easy to find you! He's a good kid," he added to his father once Finn was out of earshot.

"You're both good kids, it's your brother that worries me." Joshua's face fell as he sighed again. "I don't know where we went wrong with him; did he just fall in with a bad crowd or something?"

Jermaine shrugged, not entirely sure what had made his twin turn to crime either. "Dunno, Dad. That Tiffany kid always did seemed a bit off, so did those Lettuce Brothers. Didn't think they were crooks though."

"Well, your mother and I agreed that Finn isn't to know anything about Jake being a thief. You know how impressionable he is," Joshua said sternly. "We don't want him getting the wrong message, all he needs to know is that his brother is in big trouble. So keep him out here and away from the courtroom, we're counting on you, Jermaine."

"Sure thing, Dad. Give Jake a smack upside the head for me, will ya?" Turning towards the direction Finn had run off in, Jermaine cupped his hands round his mouth and shouted after him. "Okay, here comes the cloud, you better be hiding!" With that, he headed off after the boy, who had completely vanished from sight.

"Oh, he'll be getting more than a smack upside the head when I'm done with him," Joshua muttered as he headed up the stairs to the main entrance of the Royal Congressional Hall. "Didn't know it was wrong my foot…"

o.o.o.o.o

"Right... let me look at you." Kneeling in front of Flame Princess and wearing her fireproof gloves, Princess Bubblegum carefully neatened the girl's flaming hair. Although the little elemental could touch things without burning them, most of her excess heat was channelled out through her hair which made it too hot for Bubblegum to touch without protection.

They had arrived at the Royal Congressional Hall the morning after the candy princess had received the summons, flying there on Lady Rainicorn. Flame Princess had flown some of the way herself, but it was too far for her to be able to make it all the way herself, at least not until she was older. Both of them were wearing more formal dress than usual, Bubblegum's gown was dark purple and more elaborate and regal than her usual dress.

Flame Princess was feeling more than a little uncomfortable in her dress. It was more restrictive than the light smock she was used to, and she disliked the full skirt as she kept tripping on it. Worst of all, Bubblegum had insisted that she wear shoes. But her mother's dress looked just as cumbersome, so the fire girl guessed it must be a princess thing.

Reaching into the case beside her, Bubblegum took out an open-ended gold circlet and carefully settled it onto Flame Princess' head. The open ends curled back on themselves to sit flush against either side of the gem set into the fire girl's forehead, and though it appeared to be pure gold it was heavily alloyed with titanium to resist the heat of her hair.

"There." Rocking back on her heels, Bubblegum looked at the little elemental critically. "Now you definitely look like a princess."

"But I'm always a princess," the fire girl replied, bewildered. "Don't I always look like one?"

Bubblegum had to think about that one for a moment. "Well, yes, I know you're always a princess sweetheart. But other people might not if you're not dressed like one."

"Will I always have to wear this now?" Flame Princess' voice was genuinely horrified, and Bubblegum laughed gently.

"No Feuer, just while we're here," the candy princess replied. "I know how you feel, believe me." She looked down at herself with a wry smile, missing her simple gown and lab coat already. "It's so awkward doing anything remotely productive when I'm dressed like this..." Getting back to her feet, Bubblegum reached down to take Flame Princess' hand. "Well, we'd better go see the other princesses before the trial starts, come on."

The fire girl didn't move, looking up at Bubblegum anxiously. "What if they don't like me? Pepbutt said I burned Toast Princess when I was really little and she was mad but he thought it was really funny. Will she still be mad?"

"Well, firstly I don't think she's here, she's not on the jury roster," Bubblegum began, having seen the roster when she'd arrived. "Secondly, you'd only just turned a year old at the time, and you thought that since she was toast, it was okay to burn her. Yes, she was mad, but it wasn't your fault she had to be scraped for an hour afterwards. I'd told her to be careful around you. And I don't think she'll still be mad, that was years ago now."

"Okay mom," Looking somewhat reassured, Flame Princess followed her mother into the corridor outside their chambers, holding her hand tightly. She was still a little nervous, but she also wanted to meet the other princesses. The only one she really knew besides her mother was Lumpy Space Princess.

The Royal Congressional Hall was very different from the Candy Castle, it was larger, grander and yet more sombre. It lacked the bright colours of the Candy Kingdom, but made up for it with elaborate architecture and decoration that involved a lot of gilding. The hallways were nearly twice as high as the ones in the Candy Castle, the vaulted ceiling disappearing into shadow. Flame Princess couldn't help thinking that they'd be great for flying in, but she knew that probably wouldn't be allowed.

Arriving at a large double door, Bubblegum rapped on it with her knuckles then pushed one of the doors open and led Flame Princess inside. The room on the other side was a massive circular chamber that looked like it could have held the entire Candy Foyer easily. In the middle of the room was a large round table that could sit a full jury of fifteen, but only four chairs were occupied. Princess Bubblegum thought that was a good sign for the accused, if the judge had decided on a jury of five then it meant he was considering the charges petty theft instead of grand larceny.

Approaching the table, aware that Flame Princess was now hiding behind her, Bubblegum nodded to her fellow royals, and greeted them in turn. "Good morning ladies. Slime Princess, Wildberry Princess, Turtle Princess, Bear Princess." The presence of the latter wasn't entirely surprising; despite being a bear the ursine monarch was calmer than a lot of the other princesses. In fact, all of the monarchs present were known to be relatively level-headed, which was another good sign.

"Good morning Princess Bubblegum," Slime Princess replied, then tilted to one side to try and see the small figure behind her. It would probably have been much easier for Flame Princess to keep hidden if she wasn't made of fire. "And… uhm… this is?"

"This is Flame Princess." Putting one hand on the fire girl's shoulder, Bubblegum gently drew her around to stand in front of her. "My daughter." She didn't elaborate on that statement; the candy princess knew that the others would have heard the story behind it at some point. Though she did hope that none of them were about to question it.

Flame Princess smiled shyly, somewhat reassured by the fact that both Slime Princess and Wildberry Princess were smaller than she was, and Turtle Princess was smiling. Bear Princess on the other hand was more than a little intimidating, a gigantic, shaggy brown bear at least twice the size of the biggest one she'd seen in the woods around the Candy Kingdom. She was wearing a tiny, delicate-looking gold tiara set with a blue gem between her ears, half-hidden by thick fur, and turned in her seat to lean down and snuff at Flame Princess curiously.

Straightening up, Bear Princess tilted her head to the side and huffed a short, gruff query towards Princess Bubblegum. Unlike some of her subjects, she'd never bothered to learn human languages. But as she was a princess her fellow royals could still understand her, much as they understood Mini Queen or Wolf King. From the look Slime Princess gave the bear, it was clear that if she'd had legs, she'd have been kicking her under the table.

"Why did she say I don't smell like you?" Flame Princess asked Bubblegum curiously.

"Probably because you don't smell of sugar as much," Bubblegum replied quickly, shooting a glare towards the ursine princess that made her all but sink below the table.

"Oh. Okay." To Bubblegum's relief, the fire girl seemed to accept that at face value. Straightening up self-consciously, Flame Princess made a small curtsey to the other princesses just as she'd been taught. "It's nice to meet you all."

"It's nice to meet you too," Slime Princess replied, echoed by Wildberry Princess and Turtle Princess and followed by an affirmative growl from Bear Princess. Flame Princess thought she saw Slime Princess shoot an odd, almost nervous glance towards her mother, but when she spoke again she sounded completely casual. "Princess Bubblegum, we really do need to start looking at the trial documents… I don't think that would be suitable for your daughter."

Bubblegum knew that was code for 'we want to talk to you about your daughter', but since that was inevitable, she supposed she might as well get it out of the way. "I suppose not. Feuer, do you want to go flying with Lady Rainicorn for now? She's waiting at the grand entrance."

As Flame Princess had been growing increasingly uncomfortable upon realising that she really didn't know what princesses who weren't her mother liked to talk about, she seized the opportunity gratefully. "Okay!" Completely forgetting to say goodbye, the fire girl dashed away, and Bubblegum took her seat as the door closed behind her.

Raising her blocky head slightly, Bear Princess grunted an apology, followed by a couple of queries that made Bubblegum roll her eyes. "Yes, she's adopted," the candy princess sighed. "No, she doesn't know that. Do not tell her."

"Seriously, how could you have missed that?" Wildberry Princess asked, getting a low, embarrassed growl in response. "Oh come on, you haven't been hibernating for seven years!"

"Is she really adopted?" Turtle Princess' sudden question immediately got the other princess' attention, though Bubblegum noticed that both Wildberry Princess and Slime Princess were looking at the humanoid turtle with looks that clearly said 'I can't believe you actually asked that' rather than shock at the implied suggestion. Realising that everyone at the table was now staring at her, Turtle Princess started to shrink nervously into her shell. "I mean… uhm… there are these rumours that you just said she's adopted but really… uhh…" Her head was now fully withdrawn into her shell, but her voice still echoed from within it. "What really happened was that you and Flame King…"

"WHAT?!" Slamming both hands on the table with a bang that made all four of the other princesses jump, Bubblegum pushed her chair away and got to her feet, furious. "Those rumours are utter junk! Who in Gob's name has been spreading that kind of…" There was a pause as the candy princess considered that question. "It was Lumpy Space Princess, wasn't it?"

"Well, no." This time it was Slime Princess who spoke. "At least not to begin with anyway. I don't know if this is true, but what I heard was that Rock Princess saw Flame King at one of those underground lava balls they have down there. And… uh… she asked him about why Flame Princess is with you. You know, for someone made of stone who sits in the same place for weeks on end growing lichen, she is so obsessed with gossip."

"What did Flame King say?" Bubblegum asked through gritted teeth, though she had a very good idea already.

Slime Princess shifted awkwardly on her chair, blushing. "Uhh, well, I don't know if these are his exact words… it was something along the lines of not confirming or denying anything but, uhm, you might like a little fire in the bedroom."

Taking a deep, deep breath, Bubblegum released it slowly, trying to clear her mind and calm herself. This was no time to be getting would up about silly rumours. "That. Is junk," she said shortly. "Let me make this absolutely clear; as far as I'm concerned Flame Princess is my daughter. But I wouldn't touch Flame King with a twenty-foot asbestos bargepole. And why did nobody ask ME about this?" she demanded, thumping her fist down on the table. "I didn't think Flame King was so approachable what with the evil and all..."

"I was too embarrassed," Turtle Princess replied from inside her shell. "But... uh... since Ice King hasn't kidnapped you since you got Flame Princess, we thought that Flame King must have had something to do with it."

"I did think that too," Wildberry Princess added as Slime Princess nodded in agreement. "He used to kidnap you all the time, then he just stopped."

Bubblegum sighed, massaging her temples with both hands. "And once again, if someone had just asked me, I could have explained that..."

o.o.o.o.o

_Feeling a frigid breeze across the back of her neck, Bubblegum groaned softly, keeping her back to the window. "What do you want, Ice King?"_

_"You knew it was me!" The ancient wizard sounded delighted. "You know me so well princess, that's how I know it's meant to be!" He cleared his throat awkwardly, and then continued. "So, uh, wanna go back to my place? See, I'm even asking you this time instead of kidnapping you, that's gotta count for something, right? Right?" The only response he got was a sleepy, high-pitched grumble, then Bubblegum sighed._

_"Great, now you've gone and woken her up," the candy princess muttered. "I'd just gotten her to sleep." As she turned towards him, the Ice King gave a startled yell as he saw the tiny elemental girl in her arms._

_"What in the name of permafrost is that?!" he yelped, eyes wide with horror._

_"SHE is Flame Princess," Bubblegum replied with a hard edge to her voice as the little fire girl blinked drowsily at Ice King. "I adopted her."_

_"Phew," The Ice King grinned as he sighed in relief. "Then you can just... give her back, right? Unadopt her? Because I am so not into you being a mom, that's just not sexy."_

_Bubblegum gave him a long, hard glare before finally replying. "She's not going anywhere Ice King, she's my daughter now. And if you can't deal with that, get the fudge out."_

_Ice King's eyes narrowed as he looked at her in what seemed like concentration, then he shook his head in defeat. "Nope. Still not into it. Call me when it grows up and moves out, okay?" With that, the old wizard rose into the air and flew off, headed back to the Ice Kingdom as Bubblegum stared after him in disbelief._

_"Wow. That was easy," she commented to herself, then looked down at Flame Princess. "Looks like you scared him off for good, Feuer. I couldn't have done that." The little elemental only yawned tiredly, then snuggled against Bubblegum's chest and went back to sleep._

o.o.o.o.o

"Ohhhhh." The other princesses nodded as they made sounds or growls of understanding.

"I wonder if that would work for me..." Slime Princess mused to herself, and then shook her head. "Never mind." Bear Princess huffed irritably in response, and Slime Princess rolled her eyes. "Yes, we know he ended up throwing you out, but that's not our fault." The ursine monarch made some further grumbling sounds; clearly still offended by the entire affair of her short-lived kidnapping but the other princesses ignored her.

"I still have a question," Turtle Princess stated, her head slowly starting to emerge from her shell again. "Aren't fire elementals evil? Are you sure it's safe for her to be on the surface?"

Princess Bubblegum had been wondering when that issue would come up. "Absolutely sure," she replied confidently. "I don't think fire elementals, or elementals or any kind, are intrinsically evil. They're anthropomorphic personifications of forces of nature, and nature isn't evil, it's neutral." As she looked around the table she could see that Turtle Princess and Slime Princess were considering that, but Wildberry Princess and Bear Princess were nodding. "Flame Princess isn't dangerous, and I'll take full responsibility for any damage she might cause."

Pulling her chair back to the table, Bubblegum sat down and folded her arms in front of her in a business-like manner. "Now let's start looking over the trial documents before the court session starts without us…"


	14. Chapter 14

_[This is a Rainicorn game; it's called Human Hunt,]_ Lady explained to Flame Princess. She and the fire girl had flown several laps around the Royal Congressional Hall already; the rainicorn didn't want to take her too far. There was only a small stand of trees around the base of the mountain the hall had been built on that separated it from the Bad Lands. Thankfully it was a clear, cloudless day as it wasn't unusual for the building to be above the cloud cover and flying through clouds was bad for the little elemental as they cooled her rapidly.

"What's a human?" Flame Princess asked curiously. "Is that like a shoe man?" Her own shoes were sitting by the entrance to the hall, the first thing the fire girl had done when she'd got outside had been to kick them off.

_[No, no, no,]_ Lady replied. _[They lived all over Ooo before the Mushroom War, but there aren't any left now.]_

Flame Princess frowned at that, confused. "Then how do you hunt them?"

Lady laughed, shaking her head _. [That's just what the game is called little princess, it's like hide and seek but the rules are different. First we need to have somewhere to be the human den, how about the porch?]_ She pointed towards the elaborate porticoes over the main entrance to the hall.

"Okay." Flame Princess nodded in agreement. "Then what?"

_[Then one of us is the rainicorn and the other is the human. It's better when you have more people to be humans,]_ Lady added with a sigh, remembering playing this with her friends in the Crystal Dimension. _[But we can still play. The rainicorn has to count to twenty while the humans hide, then the rainicorn tries to find them. If the humans can make it back to the human den before the rainicorn can find them and catch them, they win. Do you understand?]_

"Yeah, that sounds fun!" Flame Princess said excitedly, starting to hover in mid-air. "Can I be the human first?"

_[Of course,]_ Lady smiled. _[But you can't go past the trees around the mountain, okay?]_

"Okay!" Flame Princess agreed. "I'm gonna go hide!"

Watching the little elemental go soaring off, Lady chuckled fondly, then turned towards the hall and started to count. _[One, two, three...]_

o.o.o.o.o

Landing in front of the belt of trees, Flame Princess glanced back over her shoulder to see if Lady Rainicorn was following her. There was no sign of the rainicorn, so the fire girl turned back to the woods and took a deep breath, concentrating.

"Heat rises, up to my hair," she chanted softly. "I'm not gonna burn things if I take care." Princess Bubblegum had made up the rhyme for her to help her focus. While making herself hotter was easy, making herself cooler was more difficult. But it was similar to using her sugar paints: with those she had to make her hands hotter. This was just making the heat go in the opposite direction, like when she was flying.

Looking down at the grass beneath her feet, Flame Princess took an experimental step forward. Nothing happened. No scorching or smouldering, the grass simply bent beneath her weight. It would be safe for her to go into the trees. Or rather, safe for the trees to have her amongst them. Lady wouldn't be expecting her to hide here. Giggling, the fire girl darted forwards into the shadowy woods.

Hovering just above the ground, Flame Princess floated silently through the trees, looking for a good hiding spot. The bushes weren't an option, those would go up in flames if her hair got tangled in them. Instead she looked for large rocks she could hide behind or big trees with branches she could perch in without her hair burning them.

Since she was making no noise whatsoever, Flame Princess immediately noticed the sound of someone murmuring nearby, and headed towards it inquisitively.

"…hide in a bushel, a basement, a cave, but when cloud comes a' huntin', no-one's a save…" The words were coming from the base of one of the biggest trees, where a huge root was arching out of the earth. As Flame Princess flew over it, she saw that it formed a small, natural cave on the other side where the earth beneath it had crumbled away. And hiding there was a small boy who jumped in surprise as he saw her above him.

"Aaah! You're not Jermaine! Are you an evil fire witch because I'll kick your buns if you are!" Drawing a wooden sword, the boy sank into a defensive crouch, which made the fire girl giggle. He looked so serious.

"I'm not a witch," Flame Princess replied, landing in front of the boy's hiding place. "I'm a princess!"

Lowering his sword, the boy looked at her suspiciously for a moment, taking in the dress and gold circlet. His eyes narrowed. "Don't princesses wear shoes?"

"Pfffft, no!" the fire girl replied scornfully. "How many princesses have YOU met? Because I've met at least six besides my mom and none of them wear shoes! Two of them don't even have feet."

"Oh." The boy seemed crestfallen. "Wait, so you're a princess for reals then?"

"Duh," Flame Princess folded her arms, starting to get annoyed now. Her mother had said that she was dressed like a princess after all, and everyone else had known she was one. Maybe the boy was just stupid. She wasn't even sure what he was, not a candy person obviously but he had ears like a bear. Maybe he was related to Bear Princess?

"I'm sorry, your Highness!" Scrambling out of his hiding place, the boy sank to one knee in an exaggerated courtly bow. He was wearing a light blue t-shirt and navy shorts, both rather grubby now, in addition to the white bear hat, black canvas shoes and an overly large green backpack. "My name is Finn the Human, how can I serve you?" He raised his head slightly to look at her as he continued. "I wanna be a knight you see. Do you have any quests for me?"

Flame Princess giggled helplessly, not quite sure what to make of him. "You're weird." Then she remembered what Lady Rainicorn had told her earlier and frowned. "And you can't be a human, they're all gone."

"Nuh-uh, I totally am a human!" Getting back to his feet, Finn pulled off his hat, revealing long blonde hair and human ears. "But my dad says I might be the last one," he added cheerfully. "Mom says that means I'm super special."

"Oh," the fire girl said as Finn put his hat back on, jamming it tightly over his hair. "I'm Flame Princess. I've never even seen a human before. Do you live out here?"

"Naw, I'm here with my family to get my brother Jake," Finn explained. "He's been away for a while and my dad said he's been bad and I think that's why we came all the way here?" He shrugged, not entirely sure himself. "Anyway, we live in the woods by the Grass Lands. What about you? Do you come from the Fire Kingdom?"

"Fire Kingdom?" Flame Princess' forehead creased in confusion. "I live in the Candy Kingdom. I didn't know there WAS a Fire Kingdom."

"But you're made of fire." The human boy seemed just as bewildered. "So aren't you supposed to live in the Fire Kingdom with the other fire people?"

Flame Princess stared at him, having never given the matter much thought herself. She had been telling the truth when she'd said she didn't know that there was a Fire Kingdom, or fire people for that matter. She knew she was a fire elemental because that was what her mother had told her; maybe that meant the same thing? "I don't think so," she replied eventually. "My mom's the princess of the Candy Kingdom, that's why I live there."

"Ohhhh," Finn's eyes widened in sudden realisation. "Then you must be ad…" Before he could finish the sentence, a flash of rainbow colours swooped down from the sky, twisting through the trees with effortless agility and snatching up Flame Princess like a hawk catching a mouse.

_[Caught you, little princess,]_ Lady Rainicorn laughed, and then arced back down to the ground to the other small figure. _[Did you make a friend? OW!]_ The moment she landed, the small boy ran forwards and whapped her smartly on the nose with his wooden sword.

"You let Flame Princess go right now, dragon!" Finn ordered. He'd never seen a rainicorn before but he had seen dragons, and some of them had looked sort of like this strange rainbow creature. Besides, it had tried to kidnap Flame Princess, and dragons often did that with princesses.

"She's not a dragon, she's Lady Rainicorn!" Flame Princess said quickly, before Finn could strike again. "She's my friend, don't hit her."

"Oh." Stopping in mid-swing, Finn blushed bright red as Lady glared at him, rubbing her nose. "I'm sorry; I thought you were kidnapping Flame Princess."

_[I suppose that's all right,]_ Lady grumbled, her nose still stinging. _[Just don't do it again.]_

Finn glanced towards Flame Princess helplessly. "Uhm, I don't know what she's saying. Is she mad? She sounds kinda mad."

"She said it was okay, but don't do it again," Flame Princess translated for him. She knew that not everyone understood Lady Rainicorn like she and her mother did since Lady spoke a different language. "Lady, this is Finn the Human, he was hiding out here too. Does this mean I win at Human Hunt?"

_[A human?]_ Lady had never actually seen one, neither had her parents. They'd supposedly been extinct for nearly a thousand years, but this boy certainly didn't look anything like the other inhabitants of Ooo that she'd met over the years. He was humanoid like Princess Bubblegum, but his skin was a different colour and he didn't have the same sweet, sugary scent. In fact, he smelled very strongly of dog but beneath that there was something else, an unfamiliar yet extremely tempting odour that made her mouth water.

"YOU GET AWAY FROM MY LITTLE BROTHER!" The furious yell came from a tan dog, who came hurtling over the root that Finn had been hiding under to land on all fours in front of the boy, snarling and barking at the rainicorn.

Jermaine had been following the sounds of voices through the woods. At first he'd thought that Finn still hadn't quite grasped the concept of hiding, but then he'd realised there was another voice, a girl. Curious, he'd picked up the pace only to see a rainicorn standing in front of where his nose told him Finn was and immediately went on the defensive. Rainicorns ate humans.

Charging towards them, he leapt over the large root and took a defensive position in front of his brother. He had noticed the fire girl as well but paid no attention to her for now. The rainicorn was the threat. Fur bristling, he let out a volley of threatening barks, teeth clipping together with sharp metallic clicks just short of the rainicorn's bruised nose. Finn must have been trying to fight her off with his wooden sword; he'd need to speak to their father about letting the boy have a real one if there were rainicorns around.

Taking hold of Flame Princess, Lady backed away warily. Her father had taught her that she shouldn't hate dogs just because of the war in the Crystal Dimension; he'd been saved by a dog when he'd been injured behind enemy lines and had impressed on her that she should judge them as individuals, not as a racial enemy. _[It's okay!]_ she said placatingly, seeing that the dog was calming down as she moved further back. _[The war was a long time ago; we don't want to fight you.]_

Jermaine had no idea what the rainicorn was saying, but slowly covered his teeth as she moved away. "I don't know your language," he growled, hackles still raised. "Just go away and leave us alone!"

"She said the war was a long time ago," Flame Princess called back, sharing a look of utter bewilderment with Finn. Neither of them had any idea why their respective guardian was acting like this. "We don't want to fight!"

"The war?" Jermaine asked incredulously. "I don't care about the stinkin' war; she's not eating my little brother!"

"She wasn't gonna eat me, Jermaine!" Finn had come forward to stand beside her brother, petting his ears comfortingly. "You're being all crazy. We were just talking."

Lady almost laughed in relief, the dog's reaction made much more sense now; this wasn't some grudge from the Rainicorn-Dog War. _[We don't eat people any more,]_ she explained, hoping Flame Princess would translate for her. _[Not for nearly a thousand years. We eat soy people instead. I'm not going to eat your brother.]_

"Rainicorns used to eat people?" Flame Princess asked curiously, and Finn's eyes widened as he clung to Jermaine.

"I don't wanna be eaten!" he began to protest, but fell silent as Flame Princess spoke again.

"No, she says that was nearly a thousand years ago, and she's not going to eat you," the fire girl continued. "And I've never, ever seen her eat a human, honest," she added, not mentioning that Finn was the first human she'd ever seen.

Jermaine looked at both the rainicorn and the fire girl suspiciously for a few moments, then his fur smoothed out and he pushed himself up onto his hind legs. "Okay then," he said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Sorry about the barking and stuff," he added grudgingly. "I go kinda nuts when I think my family's in danger. It's a dog thing."

_[It's okay, I understand,]_ Lady replied, setting Flame Princess down.

"She says it's okay, she understands," Flame Princess translated helpfully.

There was a short, awkward pause as Jermaine looked hard at them, his eyes narrowing then widening in horror. "Oh fudge, aren't you the rainicorn that's friends with Princess Bubblegum?" he asked in a strangled yelp.

"Yes she is!" Flame Princess answered for her. "Princess Bubblegum is my mom." If anything, Jermaine's expression became even more horrified at that bit of information.

"Crud, I am so, so sorry! I just saw a rainicorn next to my little brother and freaked!" If the rainicorn was friends with the candy princess, Jermaine knew that meant Finn had never been in danger. "I'm just kinda on edge right now, what with my brother Jake being…" He caught himself just in time. "Being very naughty," he finished, with a cautious glance towards Finn.

"Jake the Dog?" Flame Princess remembered the name from what Lumpy Space Princess had said the day before. "That's why my mom's here, isn't he…" She fell silent as Lady tugged at the back of her dress, glancing round towards the rainicorn. "What?"

"What about Jake?" Finn asked. "What's that to do with Princess Bubblegum?"

From Jermaine's expression, Lady could tell this was a delicate subject. _[Princess, don't say anything else about Jake the Dog,]_ she whispered to the fire girl urgently. _[Don't ask, just trust me.]_

"What did she say?" Finn looked sceptical, starting to suspect there was more going on here than anyone had told him.

"I think she said that she wants to play Cloud Hunt too!" Jermaine said quickly. "You be the Cloud this time Finn, you go count to twenty and we'll hide."

"Count to twenty?!" Finn whined, looking as enthusiastic about that prospect as he did about bath time. "But Jermaine, you know I can only count to ten!"

"Then count to ten twice, Finny," his brother replied. "Off you go, no peeking!" Jermaine gave the boy a meaningful shove and Finn headed off reluctantly. "Keep going!" the dog called after him. "Right back to the steps we started from before." Turning back to Lady and Flame Princess, he sighed heavily in relief. "Sorry. Dad told me I wasn't to let him find out that Jake's a thief. Don't tell him, okay?"

"Okay," Flame Princess agreed for both of them. "What's Cloud Hunt? Is it like Human Hunt?"

Lady Rainicorn laughed nervously as Jermaine gave her an uneasy look, not liking the sound of that name. _[No, it's just like hide and seek,]_ she told the little elemental quickly. _[Uhm… it might be best if you didn't mention Human Hunt any more…]_


	15. Chapter 15

The mournful strains of viola music threaded upwards through the spiral stairs leading to the dungeons that had been chiselled into the very bedrock of the mountain that the Royal Congressional Hall was built on. The guard led the way with a lantern held high; the only light down here came through the thin slits carved high into the wall on one side of the dungeon. Behind him, talons clicked sedately on the stone floor, the lawyer had been down here many times and knew the way just as well as the guard did.

"Jake the Dog!" The music stopped as the guard shouted the prisoner's name, and a canine shape moved into the circle of light cast by the lantern, grasping the bars of his cell. "Your lawyer's here to speak with you before the trial starts." Taking up his position opposite the door, the guard immediately tuned out and stared ahead blankly. Legal talk always gave him a headache.

Jake looked at the dark figure of the lawyer suspiciously, still wondering if he'd made the right decision. He could have used his stretchy powers to escape. But if he ran now, he knew he'd be running for the rest of his life.

"Good morning," the lawyer said, his voice smooth and cultured. "I'm Jasper O'Malley, Attorney at Law. Some folks call me the Legal Eagle."

"But you're a raven," Jake replied, eyeing the lawyer doubtfully. Jasper O'Malley was indeed a large raven, blue-black feathers glossy even in the dim light, his beak and claws meticulously polished. He was wearing a neat tweed waistcoat that left his wings free, spotless white spats that had clearly been specifically made for four-toed avian feet and a pair of pince-nez spectacles was perched on his beak.

"It's just a nickname, son." Jasper replied. "Besides, us corvids are considered the smartest of birds, which is lucky for you since you're in one heck of a pickle. Normally I wouldn't even consider taking on a case as open and shut as this one, but your father's an old friend of mine."

At the mention of his father, Jake visibly sagged. Stealing had seemed like such a harmless way to get by that he'd never stopped to consider what his parents might think. He'd never really been in it for the money after all, just the buzz that came from escaping the law afterwards. Now that he was in a dungeon awaiting trial however, it suddenly seemed much less fun. "I know I messed up bad," he said quietly. "What do you think my chances are?"

"Well, lucky for you, your father will vouch for you," Jasper told him. "He and your mother have already made sure that everyone you stole from has been reimbursed. Still, it would go a lot better if you were prepared to give evidence on your accomplices…"

"Hey, I ain't no snitch!" Jake replied angrily. "Besides, I was the leader, so I'm the responsible one."

Jasper shook his head with a sigh, lightly scratching at the floor with a taloned foot. "Heck of a strange time to grow a sense of responsibility, my boy. There's not really much in the way of mitigation, you sure you don't want to plead guilty?"

"Yes I'm sure!" Jake's voice was certain. "Look, I never meant for things to get this bad, okay? It was just a couple of bikes here and there, ones that weren't even locked up or nothing! The owners couldn't have wanted them THAT bad…"

"And the purses?" Jasper asked sceptically, head quirked to one side.

Jake looked away, shifting from one foot to the other. "…that was Tiffany's idea…" he said eventually. "But it's not like they kept much besides pennies and cough drops in those. I didn't think it was wrong, we were just having fun…"

"Well 'fun' is going to land you with a ten-year stint in a dungeon," the raven stated flatly. "If that's all you've got, I really do recommend you change your mind about your plea."

"I'm not pleading guilty!" Jake repeated indignantly. "That'll just make things worse for my folks, if I just outright say I know I did wrong!"

"And that's worse than them having to sit through you being put on trial and found guilty anyway? Because that is exactly what's going to happen. In about…" Poking his beak into his waistcoat pocket, Jasper deftly flicked out a silver fob watch on a chain and caught it in one wing. "Two, three hours at most?" he continued as he looked at the time. "Because I might be a good lawyer, but the best darn attorney in all of Ooo won't be able to change the fact that you're guilty as sin."

"Been trying to tell him that for days." The unfamiliar voice made the raven look round sharply to see a large worm poking its head out of the viola. "Jake's pretty pigheaded when he thinks he's right about something. And… uh… stop looking at me like that." Shelby certainly didn't like the appraising look he was getting from the lawyer, or the way it was accompanied by a snap of Jasper's beak. "Okay, you're kinda scary. Jake, you're on your own." With that, the worm pulled himself back inside the instrument and didn't emerge again.

Blinking as the tempting morsel vanished; Jasper gave a short, embarrassed cough. "Uh… where was I? Oh yes. If you plead guilty now there won't be a trial, it'll skip straight to sentencing."

"Wait, what?" Jake stared at the raven in disbelief. "I thought I had to get a trial anyway? What the fudge am I in the dungeon for?"

Jasper stared back at the dog steadily until he was sure that Jake wasn't bluffing, and then sighed heavily. "You're in the dungeon awaiting trial because you pleaded not guilty. This would never have gone to trial if you'd pled guilty from the beginning. Exactly what part of that aren't you grasping?"

"Pretty much the core concept," Jake replied defensively. "I thought that pleading not guilty meant that I did it but I totally had a good reason? I didn't know it was wrong!"

"Oh good Glob," the raven sighed. "Your father never told me you were stupid…"

"Hey!"

o.o.o.o.o

The murmuring in the courtroom slowly died down as the prisoner was escorted to the defendant's table by a pair of Banana Guards. The Grand High Judge, a diminutive old creature of indeterminate species, banged his gavel down anyway.

"Order! Order in the court!" The wizened old man was almost entirely concealed by his powdered wig, though it was a matter of some debate whether it was in fact a wig, or part of him, or if the judge himself was actually an extension of the wig rather than vice versa. The ensuing silence was broken by hushed murmurs as Jasper O'Malley stalked over to perch beside him with slow, stately steps.

"That's Jasper O'Malley," Turtle Princess whispered to the other princesses of the jury.

"The Legal Eagle?" Slime Princess muttered back. "But he's a raven…"

"It's just a nickname," Princess Bubblegum explained quietly, then fell silent as the Grand High Judge's baleful gaze turned in their direction. Over at the prosecution table the opposing lawyer, a nervous-looking Rock Man, was surreptitiously polishing a silver pen. He hoped that the rumours about being able to break O'Malley's concentration with a shiny object were true.

"Court is now in session," the Grand High Judge announced. "Counsel for the defence, your opening statement."

Hopping down from his perch, Jasper took a few steps forward to stand before the judge. "Your honour, Princesses of the jury, my esteemed colleague on the prosecution." He paused for effect, knowing that they'd all be expecting him to launch into a long speech with the incisive wit he was famous for. They were going to be sorely disappointed. "If it please the court, my client would like to change his plea to guilty."

The court's response was immediate chaos.

o.o.o.o.o

"Well this was a complete waste of time," Bubblegum grumbled as she threw herself back into her chair in the jury chamber. "I'm tempted to vote for having him thrown in the dungeon anyway just for that."

"Same here," Slime Princess agreed. "It's not even like the mitigation arguments were that convincing."

"But all the people he stole from have been reimbursed," Wildberry Princess pointed out. "Since we're voting on the sentence we should take that into consideration." Bear Princess grunted an agreement, slapping a platelike paw down on the table.

"Are you guys honestly saying you believed him when he said he didn't know stealing was wrong?" Bubblegum asked acerbically. "Given that we're talking about the son of Joshua the Dog, I'm not really convinced of that."

"Well…" Turtle Princess began doubtfully. "It's not like he stole anything really valuable… like the gems in our crowns or the Baker's Shard or anything like that. And his father did say he'd make sure he stays on the straight and narrow."

"Let's look at the sentencing options then," Slime Princess said, clearly just wanting to get the whole thing over with. "Imprisonment in the dungeon of our choice, hard labour, house arrest, community service, or a stern warning."

Bear Princess gave a short, gruff harrumphing noise, and Slime Princess shook her head with an exasperated sigh. "You're such a soft touch."

o.o.o.o.o

Crouching together inside the large hollow stump, Flame Princess and Finn were covering their mouths to stifle their giggles as they listened to Jermaine crashing around the woods looking for them. There was no visible way inside the stump from the outside, Flame Princess had helped Finn scale it by flying behind him and tugging at his backpack, then they'd both jumped down into the hollow at the centre. The rotting wood was damp and mossy, so it would be difficult for Flame Princess to accidentally ignite it; it wasn't even smoking at her touch.

"He is never gonna find us," Finn whispered as Jermaine's footsteps slowly faded away. "This hiding place is totally math, I'm glad you found it."

"I'm glad it's not Lady Rainicorn who's being the Cloud," Flame Princess whispered back. "She'd have seen us from above. Cautiously hovering up to the top of the stump, she peeked over it to see if she could spot either of them, but all she could see were more trees.

"I wish I could fly," Finn's voice was envious as the fire girl floated back down. "Being a human's kinda lame."

"But you're the only human," Flame Princess pointed out. "That's pretty awesome."

The boy rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly, blushing. "You really think so?" he asked bashfully.

Before Flame Princess could reply, she froze as she saw two tan creepers come sliding over the top of the stump like snakes. She squealed in surprise in the same instant as they both wound tightly around Finn and hauled him out like a hooked fish as the human boy gave a yell of shock. Launching herself into the air, Flame Princess shot out of the stump and looked down to see… a dog that looked just like Jermaine swinging Finn through the air with arms that were impossibly long and rubbery. And Finn was now laughing instead of yelling.

"Ha! You might fool Jermaine, but you can't hide from old Jakey!" the stretchy dog chuckled, setting Finn down next to him as he glanced towards Flame Princess. "Hey, is this your little girlfriend or something?" Ignoring the question, the boy immediately seized Jake in a tight hug, chattering at him excitedly.

"Jake! Are you coming home now? Are you grounded? Did Dad spank you? What did you do that was so naughty? Can we go adventure now?" The questions came barrelling out of Finn like rapid-fire ammunition as he clung to his brother, overjoyed to see him again. Feeling somewhat out of place now, Flame Princess landed next to them as Jermaine came through the trees, followed by another two dogs that looked older, both wearing hats.

"Good, you found your brother," the dog with the grey hat said, sounding stern. "And that's quite enough tomfoolery from you, Jacob Theodore The Dog, you are going straight to your room when we get home! You got off lightly with community service, if you'd been thrown in a dungeon then…"

"Joshua," his wife interrupted, putting a hand on his arm as she glanced meaningfully at Finn. "This isn't a topic for children."

"Oh. Yes." Clearing his throat awkwardly, Joshua was about to say something when his gaze fell on Flame Princess and his eyes widened. "My word, why is there a princess with you, Finnegan?"

"A princess?" Jake said incredulously, looking down at his little brother. "Good work there kiddo." Finn looked back at him blankly, utterly bewildered.

"This is Flame Princess, we were playing Cloud Hunt with Jermaine and Lady Rainicorn," the boy explained.

"And I could have told you that if you'd just freaking asked..." Jermaine muttered. "Also I better go find Lady, she's probably still hiding..."

_[No, I'm here!]_ There was a rustle of leaves above them, and then Lady Rainicorn dropped out of one of the trees, her muted colours returning to their normal brightness. She'd had reservations about letting Flame Princess hide with the strange human boy so she'd kept close to keep an eye on them, planning to move to an easier hiding place once they'd been found by Jermaine. She didn't think it was a good idea to admit to that though.

Unlike Jermaine, Joshua and Margaret didn't react badly, though there was a certain wariness in Margaret's eyes as her gaze flicked from the rainicorn to Finn and back again. Jake just stared, never having seen one before.

"You're really pretty." The words came out before Jake could stop them, he hadn't even realised that he'd spoken them aloud until he noticed that everyone was staring at him. "I mean... uhh... Rainbows are really pretty! I thought you were a rainbow!" he said hurriedly. "With legs."

"Well, it's a long way back home and we'd better get started if we want to get back before dark," Joshua announced quickly, before his errant son could embarrass him any further. "Say goodbye, Finn."

"Oh." Finn's voice was disappointed as he turned towards Flame Princess. "Uhm... Goodbye I guess. Maybe I'll come visit you in the Candy Kingdom if you still live there when I'm older?"

"I'd like that," the fire girl replied shyly. "Of course I'll still live there, why wouldn't I?"

Before Finn could reply, he'd been picked up by Jermaine and set onto Jake's back, the magic dog now on all-fours. "Guess I'm on Finn carrying duty then," Jake remarked, as his parents made polite goodbyes to Lady Rainicorn and Flame Princess.

"You better believe it, bro," Jermaine replied. "From now until I decide you've worked it off."

Finn turned and waved to Flame Princess as Jake trotted homewards, with Jermaine and their parents following. The fire girl waved back until he lost sight of her in the trees, then they were out in the Bad Lands. For most people in Ooo, this would have been an extremely dangerous route, but nothing and no one in their right mind would be willing to tangle with Joshua the Dog.

"That little girl was Princess Bubblegum's elemental daughter," Margaret commented as they made their way across the sand. "I hope you were polite to her, Finn."

"I liked her," the boy replied. "She's adopted, isn't she?"

Margaret's response was a scandalized gasp. "Finnegan Human the Dog, you'd better not have asked her that!" she exclaimed. "You can't just ask people if they're adopted!"

"But I'm adopted!" Finn wailed, upset by the implication that this was a bad thing. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, no, of course not sweetie," Margaret said hurriedly. "There's nothing wrong with it at all... it's just not polite to ask."

Joshua snorted, shooting a sharp look towards Jake. "And the only reason you found out so early is because your brother Jake told you and boy did he get a spanking for that..."

"Well he's the one who asked where babies come from," Jake groused to himself. "You totally did find him under a leaf. Or stuck to one. Whatever..."

o.o.o.o.o

Like Finn, Flame Princess waved until she couldn't see the human boy any more. Beside her, Lady Rainicorn was gazing in the direction the dogs had gone with a pensive look on her face. For a dog, Jake had been very handsome, though Flame Princess would be too young to understand of course. Snapping out of her reverie, she looked down at the fire girl with a somewhat distracted smile.

_[We'd better go find your mother, come on,]_ she said gently. _[Time for us to go home too.]_

"Okay Lady," Flame Princess replied, rising off the ground to hover beside the rainicorn and following her back to the hall. "That was fun. I hope I see him again..."


	16. Chapter 16

Quietly opening the door to the library, Flame Princess slipped around it and closed it behind her. There was no real need for her to be so secretive, she was allowed in the library as long as she wore protective gloves, which she was, and didn't start any fires. But somehow she still felt strangely guilty about what she was doing.

The fire girl didn't turn the lights on. She provided more than enough illumination by herself, and she didn't want anyone to notice she was in here. The library was a large, circular room completely lined with bookshelves, rows of reading desks taking up the space in the centre. Most of the shelves were full, although there were large gaps in places where her mother had taken books to her lab or bedroom for reading. But Flame Princess wasn't looking for anything scientific.

The books were arranged by topic, and she hovered silently over to the history and geography section, looking over the titles. Immediately, a large book titled 'Peoples of Ooo' sprang out at her as relevant to her purposes, and she carefully lifted it down from the shelf and over to the reading table furthest from the door.

Although the book looked old, leather-bound with thick parchment pages, Flame Princess knew it wasn't nearly as old as the pre-Mushroom War books. The latter were flimsy things with paper covers; her mother only owned a few of them as they tended to disintegrate with age or fall apart when read. This one was far sturdier, an embossed stamp on the cover showing that it had come from the Library Kingdom's press, but Flame Princess opened it carefully all the same.

Learning to read had been something of a trial for both Flame Princess and Princess Bubblegum. Although the fire girl had learned to recognise letters and words quite quickly, she'd also accidentally ignited more than a few of the books her mother had used to teach her. Bubblegum had refused to give up, adamant that reading was extremely important, and had eventually made Flame Princess a pair of heat-containing gloves like the ones she'd had as a toddler before she'd learned to stop burning things by touch. They made her hands itch and tingle uncomfortably, but at the same time they allowed her to handle books and other flammable items without setting them ablaze.

Inside the front cover was the book's full title, 'Peoples of Ooo: A History and Chronicle', and it had been written by someone called Tobias Hobart. Turning to the contents page, Flame Princess saw that it was ordered by kingdom, and ran one finger down the list until she reached 'The Fire Kingdom'. Taking a deep breath, she turned to that page, still with the uneasy feeling that maybe she should ask her mother about this. But just because she was a fire elemental, that surely didn't mean she was from the Fire Kingdom, did it? After all, she knew there were rock and earth elementals living in the Cotton Candy Forest rather than the Rock Kingdom or Earth Kingdom.

_The Fire Kingdom is located deep beneath the surface of Ooo, mostly within the planet's asthenosphere though certain areas reach deep into the mantle. It is extremely inhospitable for most forms of life on Ooo, with the exception of its native fire elementals and creatures, Rock People and most forms of Gem People that have a Mohs hardness of over seven..._

With a grunt of irritation, Flame Princess flicked the page over, wanting to know more about the people than the place. The text droned on for a while about the kingdom's tempestuous history, where the succession law appeared to be based on knives in the back and water to the face if the list of monarchs was anything to go by, but as she turned the page again, she froze in shock.

The next page was taken up by a colour illustration of a view towards the Fire Kingdom throne room, though it was really a throne cavern. And... she remembered it? No, that couldn't be right, she'd never been there, but there was something about the sweep of the stone causeway and the jagged rock throne that seemed so familiar, and reminded her of laughter. Not hers, or her mother's, but deep, booming laughter.

Unsettled, Flame Princess turned the page again, and blinked in surprise. This page had illustrations of the Fire Kingdom inhabitants, male and female, young and old. And the picture of the girl looked like her. It obviously wasn't, the hair and face were different, but the colour of her skin and hair were similar. Looking down at the text below the pictures, she read it slowly.

_Due to their dangerous physical nature, Fire People or fire elementals are only found in the Fire Kingdom. Unlike other elementals, they present a danger to most other races of Ooo and have little interest in the world above. All they require to survive and thrive can be found below the surface of the earth, indeed, for a weak young fire elemental, being left on the surface is a veritable death sentence. It is also the method of choice for disposing of unwanted children, as the Fire Kingdom is a harsh and cruel place where weakness is not tolerated, but neither is excessive strength. Fire Kingdom society is paranoid at best, and a prudent Fire Person will dispose of potential rivals before they can become actual rivals regardless of whether they are family..._

Flame Princess slammed the book shut and snatched her hand away from it as if it was made of ice, breathing heavily. So Fire People did live in the Fire Kingdom after all, but maybe she was an exception? After all, if Princess Bubblegum was her mother, she was only half Fire Person… but then again, she didn't look like she was half Candy Person. She looked like she was entirely Fire Person.

_"But you're made of fire." Finn sounded as bewildered as Flame Princess felt. "So aren't you supposed to live in the Fire Kingdom with the other fire people?"_

The fire girl stared at the cover of the book for a few moments longer, then turned and ran out of the library, leaving it on the desk.

o.o.o.o.o

"Okay, let's try the next formula." Wearing her lab coat and protective glasses, Princess Bubblegum had started the earliest stage of testing for her decorpsinator serum. She'd synthetized six different formulas using slightly different algorithms to take the vagaries of decomposition into account, and on the workbench in front of her were six beakers containing a suspension of glucose and dead candy skin cells.

Or at least, there HAD been six beakers in front of her, now there were fragments of glass in place of the first where the reaction from that formula had been so violent it had made the beaker explode. The second beaker was black and smoking; it had caught fire and burned with an angry red flame until its contents had evaporated. The third had absolutely nothing wrong with it… but there had also been absolutely no reaction whatsoever. Now she was on to the fourth.

Science had been perched on the workbench to begin with, watching the process with interest. However, since the first beaker had exploded, the rat had retreated to the relative safety of Bubblegum's shoulder, hiding under her hair with only her nose and eyes poking out as her whiskers twitched at the lingering smell of smoke. She watched as Bubblegum picked up the next test tube from the rack and moved it over the next beaker, tensing as it slowly began to tip.

"Mom?" Bubblegum had been so absorbed in her work that she hadn't heard the door open or Flame Princess' footsteps. "Can I talk to you?"

"Can it wait?" the candy princess asked distractedly, not looking away from what she was doing. "The formulas will degrade if I leave them too long and…" As she was talking, Bubblegum finally registered the tone of the fire girl's voice, and glanced towards her. One look at Flame Princess' expression was enough to both stop her mid-sentence and persuade her that testing could wait, and she set the test tube back on the rack. "Feuer, what's wrong?" Taking Science off her shoulder, Bubblegum set the rat down on the workbench where the rodent eyed the beakers suspiciously, then went to her daughter.

Flame Princess' gaze was fixed on the floor, her eyes stinging as she blinked back tears. As Princess Bubblegum knelt in front of her to be at the same level as the seven year-old, she reached out to cup her face in her hands, raising her chin gently. "I need to ask you something," Flame Princess said quietly, though she could feel a lump starting to form in her throat at the thought of what the answer might be. "Are you really my mom?"

Bubblegum had known that question would be coming for years, had thought she'd be ready for it, but now that it had been asked she found that she wished it hadn't. But she had always told herself that when Flame Princess was old enough to ask that question, she was old enough to know the truth. "Feuer…" she began hesitantly. "I love you very much; I want you to remember that." She took a deep breath that came out as a long, heartfelt sigh. "But I… I'm not your real mother."

Even though she'd been expecting that answer, Flame Princess felt something inside her shatter in response. Closing her eyes tightly, she made a small, high-pitched whine that sounded like a muffled cry of pain, tears starting to streak down her face.

"Oh Feuer…" Bubblegum's voice sounded just as pained, the candy princess automatically raising her thumbs to brush away the girl's tears, only to recoil with a stifled hiss of pain as her skin was scorched by liquid fire. "Don't move," she ordered, then ran to the desk where she kept her protective gloves and apron and pulled them on. When she turned around again, Flame Princess was sitting on the floor of the lab with her arms wrapped around herself, and Bubblegum simply leaned down to pick her up and hold her close. The fire girl was much heavier now than she'd been as a toddler, but the candy princess was a lot stronger than her appearance suggested.

"It's okay Feuer, it doesn't matter to me," Bubblegum told her gently. "I love you just as much as I would if I was your real mother. It doesn't change anything." Walking over to a low bench, the candy princess sat down but didn't let the fire girl go, one gloved hand stroking through her fiery hair comfortingly.

"But…" Flame Princess had to swallow down a hiccupping sob before she could continue, burying her face in Bubblegum's apron. "But what happened to my parents? Did they die? Didn't they want me?" She wasn't quite sure which of those options was worse. "Did I come from the Fire Kingdom?"

"Yes, you came from the Fire Kingdom," the candy princess replied, glad that question had been an easy one. The others were harder; there was no easy way to tell a young girl that yes, her own father had wanted to get rid of her. "I don't know about your real mother, but your father…" Bubblegum's face twisted into a dark scowl that luckily the girl couldn't see. "Your father… didn't have time for you. So I took you instead." Okay, so maybe she had sugar-coated that, quite a lot, but Bubblegum still didn't feel quite up to telling the fire girl that her father had wanted her left on the surface to die.

"But my mother could still be alive?" the little elemental asked, raising her head slightly.

"I don't know," Bubblegum admitted, honestly. She'd never been able to find out much about Flame King's wife, beyond that the relationship between the two was distant at best, resentful at worse. From what little she knew, it had been a marriage of convenience, and they were rarely seen together. She would probably have known more if the Fire Kingdom had been slightly more hospitable, but as it was even Lumpy Space Princess didn't want to go there for gossip. It was certainly possible that Flame Princess' mother was still alive, but if she was…

"If she was alive then she could have found me…" Flame Princess said exactly what Bubblegum was thinking. "Everyone knows I'm here with you. But she never did so she must be dead or she didn't have time for me either…" The girl's voice faded into another sob, and Bubblegum rocked her gently against her chest.

"It doesn't make any difference to me," the candy princess told her softly. "You're still my daughter, and I love you no matter what."

"But why didn't my parents want me?" Flame Princess sniffled, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"No!" Bubblegum hadn't meant for the word to come out as an indignant shout, but it did. "No," she repeated, more quietly, pushing the girl back a little so that she could look her in the eyes. "Feuer, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you, and don't ever think that. If there is a problem then it's with your father and maybe your mother if she's still alive. But not you. Never you." Clasping the girl against herself, Bubblegum paused, then took a deep breath and went on.

"Not having proper parents doesn't make you any less Feuer," Bubblegum continued. "You're still just as special as you've always been. And you're not the only one to not have parents either, I have a… a friend whose mother died when she was very small." Brittleness had crept into the princess' voice now, but Bubblegum wasn't even aware of it, and Flame Princess didn't notice. "And her father just left her, all alone, in a very scary place. She could have died, but another person found her, and raised her, and she grew up into a wonderful person just like you'll be one day. Not having parents didn't make any difference to her, and it won't make any difference to you."

Flame Princess' sniffles were slowly fading now, and she leaned her head against Bubblegum's shoulder. Maybe the candy princess was right; she'd always been happy here with her and she'd never really cared about not having a father since nobody had ever seemed to think that was a problem. Would she have been happier with her parents? She tried to imagine that, but every time she tried to picture her real mother she just saw Bubblegum instead. And she couldn't imagine things being any different. "Can I still call you Mom?" she asked eventually.

"Of course you can, sweetheart," Bubblegum replied, hugging the fire girl tightly. "You're still my daughter as far as I'm concerned."


	17. Chapter 17

"Take a deep breath and channel the heat out through your hair." Princess Bubblegum was sitting cross-legged on the balcony of her bedroom, with Flame Princess facing her. "You're a furnace, not a fire. You control the heat. It doesn't control you."

Inhaling slowly, Flame Princess closed her eyes and concentrated, visualising the heat currents flowing through her body in her mind's eye. _Heat rises,_ she thought to herself, imagining the currents all flowing upwards to where her hair burned brightly.

Bubblegum watched as the girl's hair flared and brightened, lightening from its usual fiery red to a luminous orange as her feet and hands dimmed slightly. Opening her eyes, Flame Princess reached out to pick up the crumpled ball of paper in front of her, one of the failed formulas for the decorpsinator serum, and held it between her palms. It didn't ignite, or even singe at her touch, and Bubblegum smiled at her with maternal pride.

"Well done, Feuer. Do you want to try the candle now?" she asked, pushing a wax taper across the tiled floor towards Flame Princess. The girl was getting better and better at her control exercises, the constant use and manipulation of her combustion levels bringing a level of stability to her elemental matrix that she would never have achieved if Bubblegum had insisted on her keeping her powers contained.

"Okay, I'll try." Picking the candle up in her left hand, Flame Princess held it carefully in front of her at a short distance from her body. She felt the wax soften slightly at her touch, but it didn't melt or distort.

"Very good," Bubblegum said warmly, getting a nervous smile from the fire girl in response. "Do you think you can light it with your other hand?"

Keeping one hand cool while heating the other had been impossible for Flame Princess so far; she'd tried it a few times and inevitably ended up destroying whatever she was holding in the process. But she could see the look of confident pride on her mother's face, which encouraged her to make another attempt.

Closing her eyes again, Flame Princess returned to the mental image of her heat currents, all still flowing upwards away from her limbs. Focusing on the elemental core at her centre, the source of her combustion, she imagined a single thread of fire trailing upwards towards her hair, then twisting to one side to run down her arm instead and pool in the tip of her index finger. For a moment her concentration faltered, her combustion levels threatening to break free of the careful channels she had focused them into. Normally at this point she would have panicked and lost control, but this time she kept her focus, not wanting to disappoint her mother.

Cracking one eye open, the fire girl saw that the candle in her left hand was still intact, and the index finger of her right was glowing brightly. Cautiously touching it to the candle wick, Flame Princess laughed as it ignited, burning with a bright, clear flame. Drawing her right hand back, the fire girl focused on it again, imagining the thread of heat within re-joining the main current, and within a few moments her finger had dimmed again.

"That was excellent, Feuer," her mother told her, eyes bright with both the reflected candle flame and warm affection that made the fire girl shift position bashfully. "I think that's enough for tonight, but you are doing really, really well with this, I'm very proud of you."

"Thanks Mom," Flame Princess replied, pouring a few drops of wax on the floor of the balcony, and then setting the candle in it. Six months had passed since the fire girl had found out about her true parentage, but just as Princess Bubblegum had assured her, nothing had changed. Her eighth birthday hadn't been any different to her sixth or seventh, marked with the same celebrations that befitted the daughter of the Candy Kingdom's ruler. Flame Princess had supposed that the Candy People must know about her origins, but like her mother they didn't care. If their princess said that the fire girl was her daughter, they accepted it without question.

Getting to her feet, Princess Bubblegum held out a hand to help her daughter up, noting that her touch was only slightly warmer than her own. "Come with me, I've got something to show you." Taking the fire girl inside, Bubblegum led her through the castle corridors to one of the towers near her lab, which had previously been used as a storeroom. "This was supposed to be ready for your birthday, but I couldn't get the heat-proofing finished in time."

As her mother opened the door, Flame Princess followed her inside and halted in surprise. Unlike the normal pink and pastel décor of the castle's rooms, this one was entirely tiled from floor to ceiling with dark terracotta tiles that felt cool against her feet. The scorched metal target she used for fireball practice had been set up on one side of the room, on the other was a squat, square shape which had a central hole that glowed a bright, magma yellow.

"This room is completely fireproof," Bubblegum explained as she went over to the glass furnace; the same one she'd built years ago. "You can burn as hot as you like in here; it's good for you to let off heat once in a while instead of always keeping it in check. Now that you're older, I thought it would be good for you to have a place where you could practice using your powers without having to worry about burning anything or anyone."

That much was true, even though Flame Princess hadn't burned anyone in years, accidentally or otherwise, the concern did lurk at the back of her mind. "So… is this like a lab or something?" the fire girl asked, looking around herself curiously. It reminded her of the test chamber her mother used to gauge her heat levels but there was no observation window here.

"More like a workshop," Bubblegum replied. "Or a practice room. I know you can keep your combustion levels under control, you've proved that more than once, but you should also learn what else you can do with them. They're dangerous, yes, but that doesn't mean they can't be useful or special. That's what this is for," she added, tapping the furnace with one foot.

"What is it?" Flame Princess asked, looking at the machine curiously. She could feel the heat beating out from the glowing opening, but to her it wasn't oppressive; it felt like a fresh mountain breeze would have done to the candy princess.

"It's a glass furnace," Bubblegum explained. "It melts down glass for glass working. I did think about installing a forge in here but that wouldn't be safe for you, there's too much water and steam involved with metalworking. Maybe when you're older, but for now glass should be good practice for you. Remember when you used to try modelling with caramel?" Bubblegum couldn't help a smile at the thought. "You'll be able to do that with glass; it doesn't burn but the viscosity changes depending on how hot it is."

Reaching into the furnace opening as casually as if it was full of sugar, Flame Princess felt her hand plunge into something soft and liquid that felt strangely yielding. The heat was immense, but to the fire girl it felt comforting and familiar. Scooping out a handful of the strange fluid, she pulled her hand back out to find she was holding a clear liquid that ran between her fingers like thick honey and glowed bright sunshine yellow.

As her hands were still relatively cool, the glass slowly began to darken and solidify in Flame Princess' grasp. Moving it from one hand to the other she carefully shaped it into a ball, rolling it between her palms as it grew harder. "This stuff is awesome!" the fire girl exclaimed, the glass sphere slowly solidifying as it cooled. Stretching it out into a cylinder, Flame Princess twisted it into a spiral then melted it back down to liquid in her hands.

"There's lots of ways to work it," Bubblegum told her. "Glassblowing, moulding, sculpting, fusing, caning, it's a very versatile material. There's some books about it in the library… but I'd prefer if they stayed there since molten glass is not good for paper."

"Sure," Flame Princess agreed, pulling long threads out of the glass pooled in her palm until it resembled a flattened porcupine. Giggling, she heated her palm again and watched the spines slowly collapse. If she'd tried this with molten sugar, she'd have had a handful of cinders by now.

Pleased that the girl was happy, Bubblegum smiled. "You can colour it as well using pigments and canes. I've got more supplies and tools, but you should have a look at the books first. And you can always melt it back down if you make a mistake or it gets broken, glass can be recycled over and over."

Flame Princess had now split the handful of glass in two, and was sculpting one half into a rough, four legged shape that vaguely resembled a horse. Rolling the other into a ball, she perched the horse shape on top of it and giggled again. "Okay Mom," she said cheerfully. "This is great, thank you!"

"You're welcome, sweetheart," Bubblegum replied. "I know how much you like making things with caramel, and glass will be more versatile. And working it is a good exercise for your combustion levels as well."

Flame Princess considered that, then her expression brightened. "I could make more beakers for you in case you explode any more of them," she suggested. "That's useful, right?"

Bubblegum's laugh was only a little rueful. "It certainly would be, Feuer. At the rate I'm going through them I'll be running out soon…"


	18. Chapter 18

"Well, let's try this again," Princess Bubblegum sighed, though the only response from the rat perched on her shoulder was to tighten small claws into the fabric of her lab coat and hunker down anxiously. "Yes, I know," the candy princess went on as if she'd received a reply. "But I'm going to work this out no matter how many years it takes. If I can create life, returning it should be possible as well."

Personally, Science was starting to think she should maybe fetch a dictionary from the library and leave it open on the workbench with the word 'hubris' underlined in red pen, but all that was likely to achieve was a scolding from Bubblegum for vandalising the book. The rat would have thought that after nearly three years of on and off testing the princess might have given up on the decorpsinator serum, but apparently she was just too stubborn.

The liquid in the test tube was luminous chartreuse that seemed to glitter faintly with tiny electric sparks. As Bubblegum carefully tipped five drops into the test beaker, they hit the surface of the liquid glucose with an actinic crackle and flash. Bubblegum watched the drops settle and dissipate into the glucose like green smoke, tinting the entire beaker an acidic apple hue, but for the first few seconds nothing happened.

Then, slowly at first, the candy skin cells suspended in the thick fluid began to twitch and move as the princess held her breath in rapt anticipation. She absent-mindedly tapped the clear plastic lens across her eyes just to make sure her safety goggles were definitely still on, then leaned closer for a better look.

Pale pink flecks began to jerkily jump and drift through the glucose like brine shrimp, moving without apparent purpose or direction, but when two of them touched there was a brief spark of emerald light as they fused together. Soon the beaker held large, quivering droplets of pink biomass instead of tiny flecks, and they were still growing larger and smaller in number as they continued to merge together like liquid mercury. It wasn't until she started getting light headed that Bubblegum realised she was still holding her breath, and she let it out in a long, tense exhalation.

Within a few minutes, there was a single sphere the size of a large marble floating in the glucose, its smooth surface shivering as if it was somehow cold. Staring at it, Bubblegum felt a large, victorious grin slowly spreading across her face as she reached for her notebook and began to scribble in it with nervous haste.

"This is big, Science," she told the candycorn rat, who was now sitting on her hind legs and watching with cautious relief. "The formula animated the dead cells AND fused them together, that's even better than I expected!" The sound of a glassy chime followed by another and another snapped Bubblegum's attention from her notes back to the beaker, and as she looked at it she saw that the sphere of biomass was now bouncing against its bottom like a rubber ball, moving through the glucose as if it was water rather than a viscous fluid.

Narrowing her eyes as the sphere's movements grew more violent, Bubblegum thankfully had the presence of mind to slam a thick chemistry textbook down on top of the beaker before it could escape, which wasn't a moment too soon as the ball of biomass began to ricochet off the inside of the vessel like a bullet, making the heavy book shudder every time it was struck. Planting one hand on top of it as a precaution, Bubblegum pressed it down as the beaker started to ring like a glassy bell.

Science took the opportunity to scurry down the princess' arm, jumping off onto the workbench a safe distance from the rattling vessel. From there the rat clambered down to the floor and hid behind a rack of metal shelves, pulling her tail in behind her. Bubblegum didn't move, concerned that if she let go of the book, the ball of biomass would escape from the beaker and start bouncing around her lab just as it was doing in the beaker. There were far too many fragile things in her lab, and the princess had decided that she'd rather break some bones than some experiments. Bones healed by themselves.

Bubblegum's arm was vibrating now, the entire workbench shaking from the violence of the movement within the beaker. Then, with a final powerful jump that actually did raise the book a few centimetres despite the pressure Bubblegum was putting on it, the pink ball settled back onto the bottom of the beaker and after a few more hops it was still. The princess still waited for a few minutes before removing her hand from the book and taking a step back, blowing out the second breath she'd been unconsciously holding.

Within the beaker, the pink sphere was motionless, as if it had never moved at all. Its surface was shiny-smooth, not dented in the slightest from the repeated impacts or flattened where it sat on the base of the beaker, as geometrically perfect as a logarithmic spiral. Science poked her nose out from behind the shelves, her whiskers twitching curiously, but the rat decided to stay where she was for the moment, not trusting this strange moving orb.

"Well," Bubblegum began, her shoulders slowly relaxing. "At least it didn't-"

As if it had somehow learned comedy timing, the ball of biomass chose that moment to detonate with a muffled crack, breaking the beaker and spraying liquid glucose in all directions as the textbook crashed down onto the glass fragments.

Pinching the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger, Bubblegum took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Don't you say a word," she sighed as Science's nose poked out from behind the shelf. The rat couldn't talk regardless, but the expression on Science's face made her opinion crystal clear. The princess ignored her in any case, gingerly lifting the textbook to release a small puff of pink mist that evaporated into the air. "I really wish I knew why they keep exploding..."

o.o.o.o.o

The target made a dull, metallic clang as the fireball struck its edge, rocking slightly at the impact but not moving any further.

"Ah, globbit!" Flame Princess cursed, and concentrated again. A burst of fire licked out from her left palm and she immediately caught it between her hands, heating and moulding it until she held a ball of semi-solid flame. Drawing it back in her right hand, she hurled it at the target again, this time striking closer to the centre but still not enough to make the target spin on its axis like a bullseye would.

Cupping her left hand, the fire girl allowed it to fill with liquid flame, then threw a rapid barrage of smaller fireballs at the target. If it had been outside or elsewhere in the castle then it would have been far too dangerous for her to try something like this, but in her practice room any stray fireballs that struck the walls broke apart harmlessly against the heatproof tiles instead of starting fires. The metal disc jolted and shook at the repeated impacts, but she still couldn't quite hit the copper circle at its centre.

Momentarily running out of energy, Flame Princess glared at the target as she got her breath back. "Ugh. Stupid thing." Creating another ball of flame, the fire girl flung it at the target with a grunt, but the effort was half-hearted and the fireball didn't even reach its destination. Instead it bounced off the tiled floor a few feet from the base of the target, once, twice, then extinguished.

"Try a different shape," her mother's voice said from behind her. Flame Princess turned to see her standing in the doorway, carrying what was left of a glass beaker. "Like a disc or something that's more aerodynamic."

"A disc?" the young elemental asked doubtfully. But she'd learned to trust Bubblegum's wisdom, so Flame Princess created another ball of flame between her hands. This time however she squashed and rolled it between her palms, turning it into a convex disc. "Like this?"

"Just like that, yes," Bubblegum told her encouragingly. "Hold it by the edge, then aim and throw horizontally. Try a couple of swings first to see what it feels like, it's different from an over- or underarm throw but it'll be more accurate."

Doing as she was instructed, Flame Princess grasped the disc firmly and held it to one side, moving her arm back and forth like the disc was a flat stone she was going to skip across water. Drawing it back one last time, the fire girl launched it towards the target, immediately surprised by how much faster it travelled compared to the fireballs. It struck the brass middle ring, hard enough to make the beaten metal boom like a drum.

Without waiting for a reaction from her mother, Flame Princess immediately created a new disc and skimmed it at the bullseye, her aim and throw surer this time. It detonated against the copper circle at the middle of the target, not quite dead centre but close enough to make it ring like a gong and orbit the post it was mounted on several times before slowing to a standstill.

"Yes!" Flame Princess punched both fists into the air in victory. "Thanks Mom, that was way more accurate."

"Just don't wear yourself out," Bubblegum cautioned, dropping the broken glass into a metal bin that sat by the furnace. It was already half full, mostly from laboratory glassware. "Remember to take a break and eat something."

"I know," the fire girl replied, wandering over to the workbench by the furnace and picking up one of the sticks of firewood that Peppermint Butler had left for her earlier. It ignited immediately, glowing bright amber as it burned away in her grasp. "Eeesh, I must have been at that longer than I thought…" Flame Princess muttered, flicking ash from her fingers before picking up another chunk of wood. "Was that another beaker?"

"Yes," Bubblegum sighed. "The third one this week. I can't seem to find any balance between the serum either doing nothing, or exploding. I'm going to call it a day; I don't want to miss the meteor shower later."

"Is that tonight?" Flame Princess asked, brightening. She'd always enjoyed stargazing with her mother, especially when the candy princess had explained that stars were just suns that were much farther away, balls of plasma permanently burning in space without any need of oxygen and providing their own fuel. And they made patterns in the sky that told stories, even if they didn't look anything like what they were supposed to.

Despite the sting of recent and repeated failure, Bubblegum couldn't help a smile at the girl's enthusiasm. "Yes, if my calculations and star charts are correct, it should start around nine pm," she said. "The best view will be from the eastern tower, the sky will be darker on that side. You're welcome to join me if you want to watch it."

"Yeah!" There was no hesitation in the young elemental's reply, only enthusiasm. "Do you think any of them will hit the ground? Can we go looking for tektites and meteoric iron if they do?"

"If they do, then yes, we can take a day to go and look at the impact site." The fact that Flame Princess had an interest in what most candy people would have labelled 'science junk' and immediately forgotten was something that Bubblegum often wondered about. She wasn't sure whether the girl had picked that up from her, or if it was something she'd developed by herself. "It should certainly be educational."

o.o.o.o.o

The night sky was a deep, rich blue-black with only a few shreds of clouds drifting across it and no orbital debris in sight. The moon was barely a sliver of silver white light, curved like a sine wave… or a fang. Blinking that thought away with a snort of irritation, Bubblegum adjusted the telescope on its tripod instead.

Flame Princess was perched on the parapet of the tower's flat roof. If the girl hadn't been able to fly then Bubblegum would never have let her balance there, but since she could then she was in no real danger. The fire girl was looking upwards with rapt attention, waiting for the first meteor, and immediately sprang to her feet and into the air as she saw the first streak of white fire score across the dark sky, blazing for a brief moment then fading away. "There! I saw one!"

Although Bubblegum had meant to view the shower through the telescope, she found that she was watching Flame Princess more, smiling fondly as the girl gazed up into the sky, pointing with an excited gasp or exclamation every time she saw another meteor blaze across the heavens. She made a few cursory notes on range and trajectory, enough to calculate the possible dates and times of future showers, but that was all. The night sky really was beautiful when she looked at it without wondering how long they had until the sun went nova, or what would happen if one of those not-so-distant stars collapsed into a black hole.

An hour later, fifteen minutes after the last meteor had carved its trail across the sky, Flame Princess sank back to the tower as she realised the shower was over. As she turned towards her mother however, something caught the corner of her eye out on the Grass Lands to the east. A bright yellow light, tiny from the distance but still clear. The fire girl wondered if a meteor had struck there, possibly starting a fire. "Mom, look. What do you think that is?" she asked, pointing.

The candy princess had to stop herself from dropping her notebook in shock as she looked where the girl was pointing. She knew what and where it was immediately. After all, she'd spent many evenings and nights facing it, waiting for the light to flicker out, knowing that meant she'd be coming. She hadn't seen that light for nearly three hundred years now.

"Mom?" Flame Princess' voice was worried as she looked round to see the expression on Bubblegum's face. Her mother's eyes were wide, her face flushing, and her breath coming in nervous, shuddering gasps. "Is something wrong? Is it a fire?"

Blinking, Bubblegum shook her head and collected herself, feeling embarrassingly self-conscious. "No, I don't think so. But I will have to go investigate," she added quickly. "You should get to bed, Feuer, it's late."

"Can't I come?" Flame Princess asked, disappointed. "If it's a fire, I can help; I can burn fire breaks around it so it won't spread."

"It's… probably not a fire." Bubblegum replied evasively. "I think I know who- WHAT it is, I just want to make sure. It's nothing to worry about."

"Well, okay." Although the fire girl was still crestfallen by her mother's refusal to let her investigate the light with her, Flame Princess didn't argue. "But it's definitely safe?"

"It's safe," Bubblegum assured her, though not without some internal reservations on that score. "I'm not going to be long." Well, if her suspicions were correct, the candy princess didn't think she would be long at all. After all, it wasn't like their last meeting had gone very well.


	19. Chapter 19

The tree seemed to have grown even larger over the past few centuries, even though it should have died a millennium ago. The first time Princess Bubblegum had been there, nearly a thousand years earlier, it hadn't even had a door. Just an opening in the trunk covered by a blanket. Now it was much, much different; the gap in the trunk covered by a somewhat ramshackle hut that gave it a proper entrance. Chimneys stretched up from two of the tree's four tops, bridges running between two of them and the main trunk which was circled by a balcony. Windows had been built into the tree itself to let in light, and it was one of these which was illuminated with a warm golden glow. The one in what Bubblegum knew was the bedroom. She'd known that was exactly where the distant light had been coming from the moment she'd seen it from the tower.

None of the changes surprised her of course. The candy princess had seen most of them built over centuries, had even helped with some of them herself. Her fingers twitched momentarily, in memory of long-healed blisters, but Bubblegum's expression was a wistful smile. It vanished almost immediately as she took a step closer to the door then froze, already rethinking this plan.

"…I'm not the one who left…" she muttered to herself. "SHE left, not me. Maybe she doesn't even WANT to see me… I don't even know if I want to see her…" Bubblegum knew that was a lie, but she still felt better for saying it. Taking a hesitant step backwards, the princess paused again. "…but it's more mature for me to make the first move instead of sulking."

Bubblegum wavered indecisively as she looked at the door, listening hard in case she could hear any sound of movement or music from within. But there was only the soft rustle of the tree's leaves. Gritting her teeth both in anger at herself and determination, she stepped briskly forwards and rapped sharply on the door.

The sound echoed hollowly through the tree, but there was no response. Breathing out a long sigh, Bubblegum was about to turn away when she heard the creak of floorboards from higher in the tree and muffled voices. Voices? The candy princess' eyes narrowed slightly. Neither of them sounded female. And if that dingus Ash thought he could just move back in here, he had another thing coming.

Another light flashed into life behind the door's square window, and Bubblegum heard footsteps approaching it. Even though she was now ninety-nine percent sure that it wasn't Marceline – for a start, Marceline wouldn't have been walking – the princess felt her mouth go dry as the door handle clicked and turned, swinging open to reveal…

"You're that bike thief…" It was the first thing Bubblegum could think of when she saw the dog standing in the doorway.

"Who is it, Jake?" another voice asked, and the princess looked past him to see a small humanoid figure climbing down the ladder that led to the bedroom, wearing red footie pajamas and a white hood with bear ears. No, not just humanoid… human. A human boy who looked to be about the same age as Flame Princess. "Is that a princess?"

"Uhhhhh… gimme a minute, okay?" Jake replied quickly, then stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him, facing Bubblegum. "Look, before you say anything, please don't mention the whole thief thing in front of Finn, okay? Our parents didn't want him to know his big brother was a crook."

Since the dog had recently completed his two years of community service and probation without incident, Bubblegum couldn't see any reason to object and nodded. "Okay. But what are you doing here?"

"Well, uh, we kind of decided to live here?" Jake replied, then his eyes widened. "Glob, does it belong to you or something? It didn't look like anyone had been inside for centuries; the dust was so thick…"

Bubblegum hesitated; she'd have been lying if she'd said yes. The tree had always belonged to Marceline, but then again it wasn't like she'd bought it or anything. And she hadn't lived there in at least three hundred years, hadn't wanted to come back after Ash and had found the cave instead. It felt wrong to let someone else just move in… but at the same time, it would be wrong to make the boy and the dog leave when the tree was good as abandoned.

"No… it's been empty for a long time," she said eventually. After all, if Marceline hadn't left any sign or note to say the tree belonged to her then that was her own fault. "I was just curious when I saw the light."

"Great, I was worried there," Jake chuckled in relief. "Uh, do you wanna come inside?" He opened the door again, flinching in surprise as he saw that Finn was directly behind it.

"Dude, that is totally a princess!" the boy exclaimed before either of them could say anything. "Are you kicking us out?" he asked Bubblegum, forehead creased in worry. "I told Jake we should find out if it belonged to someone…"

"No, not at all!" Bubblegum said quickly. "I just wanted to see who was living here. Your name's Finn, right? I think you met my daughter a few years ago…" That wasn't entirely true; as soon as Bubblegum had heard the name she'd remembered Flame Princess talking about meeting him. The human boy had been the first person of her own age that the girl had met, but since his adoptive parents lived so far from the Candy Kingdom they hadn't met again since.

"Your daughter… Flame Princess!" From the way Finn's expression lit up, it was clear that the human boy remembered her. "Then you're Princess Bubblegum… does that mean the Candy Kingdom's near here? I knew we were close to the Ice Kingdom and the Mystery Mountains, but we've only been here a few days so we've not explored properly yet."

"The Candy Kingdom's just over the hills to the west," the princess explained. "Actually the Grass Lands are technically part of it, but not many Candy People live here."

"Awesome! I can totally visit like I'd said I would! Uhh… if that would be okay," Finn added awkwardly, realising that he was talking to Flame Princess' mother. But before she could reply, he quickly continued. "We totally want to help people and stuff, just like our dad did."

Bubblegum considered that for a few moments; the boy was a complete stranger to her but Flame Princess had liked him. The fire girl didn't have any other friends that were the same age as her and the princess knew that would be lonely for her, even if Flame Princess wasn't aware of it herself. "That would be fine," she replied eventually. "How is your father?"

The moment she'd said those words, Bubblegum knew she'd made a mistake. Finn's delighted expression immediately crashed into anguish that the princess could see mirrored on Jake's face when she glanced towards the dog. The boy looked up at her for a few moments longer, his face quivering, but just as his eyes began to glimmer with tears he turned and fled back up the ladder to the bedroom.

Sucking in a deep breath through his teeth, Jake sighed heavily. "It's okay, you didn't know," he said before Bubblegum could speak. "It was a month ago. We don't know exactly what happened. Me, Finn and Jermaine were out looking for this dungeon that's supposed to be in the Mystery Mountains. Which is partly how we found this tree." Closing his eyes, Jake took another deep breath before going on. "When we got back, the house was burned to the ground. Mom and Dad had been inside."

"I'm so sorry," the princess said in a shocked murmur, utterly aghast. "I hadn't heard… do you have any idea who could have done it? Your father was a great hero who helped a lot of people, and they'd want to see his killer brought to justice."

Jake shook his head slowly, his eyes still closed. "Could have been an evil dragon, or a demon, or a fire elemental, or a wizard with flame powers. Dad had a lot of enemies, and there wasn't anything left behind to show who'd done it. Could have been a freaking comet strike for all we know. Jermaine took it really bad; he thought things would have been different if we'd been there, even though it would probably have ended up with us dead too. Whatever did that took out Dad, and if they could do that then we wouldn't have stood much chance."

"If there's anything I can do to help, anything at all, please tell me." The offer was completely genuine; Bubblegum was still stunned that Joshua the Dog was gone. First Billy had vanished a few years ago, now this? It sent a cold chill of foreboding down her spine, knowing what was still trapped in the centre of her castle. If the Lich ever escaped, she had no idea how they'd fight it without heroes. Maybe that was its plan.

"Well, uh, Finn wasn't joking when he said we want to help people like our dad did," Jake replied, looking a little awkward. "Well, he really does and I'm supposed to look out for him and I guess it's a good idea. So if there's anything we can do to help protect things, or monsters you need slain, or treasures you need retrieved, then ask us. It takes his mind off our parents, and the kid's actually pretty good at that kind of stuff, believe it or not."

The candy princess had some reservations there; Finn was just a boy and he couldn't be more than nine years old. But she knew that Jake had those magical stretching powers that had allowed him to evade capture for so long when he'd been a thief, and he'd obviously protect his brother. Besides, the last major threat to the Candy Kingdom had been some wandering skeletons who'd mistaken it for the Graveyard Kingdom and the Banana Guards had taken care of those without much difficulty. "Okay, I will. You're both welcome in the Candy Kingdom any time. Uhm…" She glanced upwards, uncomfortably aware of the faint, muffled sobs that were drifting through the opening that led to the bedroom.

_"I'm not leaving until you let me come up," Bubblegum said stubbornly, stamping her foot against the packed earth as she glared up at the opening above her. "I know you're there Marceline, I can hear you!" The stifled sobs were barely discernible, the other girl most likely had a pillow pressed against her face to muffle them, but that didn't fool Bubblegum._

"Will he be okay?" the candy princess asked as the memory faded. "I didn't mean to upset him."

"Yeah, I'll make him some cocoa once he's cried himself out and he'll be asleep in five minutes flat. This isn't the first time it's happened." From the look on Jake's face and the sympathetic tone of his voice, it was clear that the dog knew what he was talking about. "I think it might be harder for him 'cause looking after him sorta takes my mind off it and gives me something to focus on, but he doesn't have anything like that. That's why he wants to go out helping people and fighting monsters every day."

"I see." Bubblegum was reconsidering her earlier doubts about Finn's ability to battle monsters. From the way Jake had said that, it really did sound like something they did every day. And it wasn't something that worried the dog. "Well, I'd better get back to the Candy Kingdom, sorry for disturbing you. And if there's anything I can do for you, please let me know."

"Likewise Princess," Jake replied, with a roguish grin that reminded Bubblegum of Lady Rainicorn… because Lady had said quite a lot about him on their way back from the Royal Congressional Hall. She wondered if she should ask Jake if he'd seen her again, but decided it was best not to pry. "We might come by in a day or so once we've got this place fixed up a bit more, it's still hella dusty in here."

That much was true. A quick glance around the room was enough to tell Bubblegum that there weren't so much dust bunnies as there were dust leviathans, and thick cobwebs festooned the ceiling. She didn't want to look too closely; seeing the tree abandoned and derelict had always made her unhappy but conversely it hadn't felt right for her to keep it in order either.

"Then I look forward to seeing you." Making her goodbyes, Bubblegum stepped back outside and closed the door behind her. She heard Jake's footsteps moving away, and exhaled heavily in a long, shuddering sigh as her shoulders slumped. But maybe this was for the best; she didn't even know what she'd have said to Marceline if she'd been here. Or what the vampire might have said to her. Flame Princess would certainly be happy to see Finn again, so that was something.

Moving away from the tree, Bubblegum cupped her hands around her mouth and called for the Morrow, now just wanting to get back to the Candy Castle before she started getting nostalgic again. It was distracting.

o.o.o.o.o

"Hey buddy," Jake said gently as he climbed up the ladder carrying a mug of cocoa that would have been steaming if it hadn't been jammed full of semi-molten marshmallows. Just the way his little brother liked it. "You okay?"

A bear-capped head poked reluctantly up from the pile of furs stacked on the bed, blue eyes now red and bloodshot. Finn scrubbed at his running nose with one sleeve as he sniffled back the last of his tears but didn't raise his eyes to meet his brother's gaze. He was too humiliated.

"…the princess thinks I'm a whiny little baby now, doesn't she?" he asked hoarsely. "And she'll tell Flame Princess, and Flame Princess will think I'm a baby. I'll never be a hero like Dad was."

"Awwww Finn, don't be like that." Sitting on the side of the bed, Jake handed the boy the mug and put an arm around his shoulders comfortingly. "Princess Bubblegum was totally cool about it. She didn't know about Mom and Dad. And she said we were welcome to go visit the Candy Kingdom any time, so you can see that little girlfriend of yours again."

In the middle of chewing his way through the thick layer of marshmallow containing the cocoa, Finn choked in embarrassment and started coughing as he inhaled the beverage instead of drinking it. "Jake, that's gross!" he managed to choke out between coughs. "Flame Princess isn't my girlfriend. Okay, so she was pretty cool but she was a girl and girls are weird."

"Oh, I see," Jake replied with a mischievous smile, though his voice was casual. "Let's not bother going to the Candy Kingdom then, we could go see what's to the south instead…"

"I still wanna visit like I said!" Finn's response was immediate. "And I like her, but I don't like-like her, that junk is way too complicated. She's just a friend. If she even remembers me." He paused, rolling the mug between his hands anxiously. "You think she will?" he asked after an awkward pause.

"You remember her, right? So she should remember you," Jake told him. "Jeez, it was only two years ago. How about we spend some time cleaning this place up tomorrow, then maybe head to the Candy Kingdom the day after?"

Sinking back into his blankets, looking both extremely pleased and overwhelmingly intimidated by the prospect, Finn nodded mutely. Then yelped as he spilled hot cocoa on his chest.


	20. Chapter 20

"How's this?" Flame Princess asked as she carefully hung the garland of summer flowers above the main door of the Grand Hall and delicately positioned the trailing strands of ivy and morning glory to cascade down either side of the arched doorway.

"That's perfect Feuer," Princess Bubblegum replied, watching from the floor below. The inhabitants of the Candy Castle were in the middle of preparations for the Summer Solstice Saturnalia taking place the following night, and the Grand Hall was currently being decorated with brightly coloured streamers and vivid floral arrangements to celebrate the first day of summer.

Fixing one last tendril of greenery into place, Flame Princess flew back to the floor and landed beside her mother. She had spent most of the morning helping to decorate the castle for tomorrow's festival, which was one of her favourite celebrations of the year. Ever since she'd been a small toddler she'd loved the fireworks show that took place at dusk, fascinated by the multi-coloured pyrotechnics that lit the sky.

Bubblegum had explained that the colours and patterns were due to chemical compounds, which had backfired on her when the five year-old Flame Princess had gotten curious about how that worked, then gotten into her chemistry supplies. The fire girl had spent the next few hours in time out in the test chamber, with half of her body burning bright green and the other half an equally lurid blue.

"I think that's everything," the candy princess said as she looked around the Grand Hall critically. "Thank you for helping Feuer, the flowers look totally math. Now I just need to finish the fireworks, and you know what that means."

"That means I need to stay away from the lab until you're done," Flame Princess replied. "Because I can ignite black powder just by being near it."

"And that's not your fault," Bubblegum added. "It's just a side effect of your physiology." She had always been careful to make sure that the fire girl understood that it wasn't her fault when things like gunpowder and touch paper still spontaneously ignited around her no matter how carefully she controlled her combustion. There would always be some things Flame Princess would have to stay away from, but that was due to chemistry and physics and not anything she was doing wrong.

"I know Mom, but I can still set them off tomorrow, right?" the young elemental asked hopefully. She loved watching the fireworks explode overhead, like bright flowers of flame, and by igniting them it was almost like she was giving them life.

The candy princess nodded in agreement; although the fire girl couldn't handle the rockets, once they were properly set up at a safe distance from each other it was easy enough for her to light them individually. "Just don't land on the roof until Starchy's done placing them."

"Yeah, I know, I'll be careful." Lifting back into the air, Flame Princess levitated up to one of the open windows. "I'm gonna go flying for a while so I don't get in anyone's way while they're getting things set up for tomorrow night, okay?"

"Just don't go too far," her mother cautioned, waving to the fire girl as she flew out of the window. Since Flame Princess was nearly ten years old now, and her flight abilities had only improved as she'd grown, the girl was allowed to fly around the Candy Kingdom without Lady Rainicorn escorting her. The candy people had no fear of the young elemental these days and their only reaction to seeing her streak overhead was to wave.

Bubblegum hadn't told Flame Princess that the mysterious light out on the Grass Lands had been at Marceline's old tree fort. Or that it was Finn and Jake who had moved in. Since she didn't know exactly when they would visit, and she'd known that the fire girl would be on edge until they arrived, Bubblegum had decided to let it be a surprise. The worst reaction that could happen was some light scorching; Flame Princess hadn't reacted to anything with uncontrolled fire since Lemongrab. That was why the candy people no longer feared her, if anything the story of what had happened to the Earl had only endeared the fire girl to them. Bubblegum wasn't sure exactly how she should feel about that…

o.o.o.o.o

Soaring effortlessly around one of the towers on the outskirts of the city, Flame Princess circled it a few times to build momentum. Clamping her arms to her sides, she gradually increased her speed then used it to slingshot herself towards one of the Gumball Guardians. Arcing through the air like a bolt of flame, the fire girl had flashed through the Guardian's bubble wand before it could even register her approach. It blinked as it realised the bubble membrane had been evaporated by the young elemental flying through it, but by the time it looked up, all it could see were fading contrails of flame.

"Hey!" it boomed irritably, hearing the faint echoes of an apology then shaking the wand until the membrane reformed. "Kids…" it muttered as it returned to blowing bubbles. At least this time the girl had managed to launch herself through the wand instead of impacting with its head or the wall.

Giggling as she flew onwards, following the curve of the kingdom wall, Flame Princess hoped the Guardian hadn't been too annoyed. It hadn't been very amused by her previous attempts to launch herself through the metal ring on its bubble wand, except for the time where she'd completely misjudged her aim and slammed into the section of wall it was sitting on instead of its back or head. It had found that hilarious once it had realised what had caused the loud thud. Fortunately she'd managed to slow down enough to only get a few bruises from the impact, though she had left a large scorch mark on the inner wall that she'd had to scrub away before her mother noticed.

Pulling upwards, Flame Princess shot high into the air, not stopping until she was higher than the giant tree at the centre of the Candy Castle. The fire girl had learned early on that there were limits to how high she could fly; once she reached eight thousand feet the reduced oxygen levels would slow her combustion and tire her out much faster. Higher than that, and she ran the risk of passing out, then dropping to earth like a stone. It had never been an issue for her though as she never went above the clouds. Flying through them felt like what rolling in hot coals would be like for anyone else. Rain was even worse; she couldn't even stay airborne if it was more than light drizzle.

But thankfully the summer weather was warm and bright; the only clouds Flame Princess could see were those hanging over the Ice Kingdom to the northeast. Then, as her gaze swung further to the east and the rolling hills of the Grass Lands, she caught sight of what she first thought was an extremely unusual creature. It looked like some kind of strange quadrupedal beast with impossibly long, spindly legs that raised it almost as high as she was, and propelled it across the hills with incredible speed, each step covering at least a hundred feet. It was coming straight for the Candy Kingdom.

Quickly darting over to land above the main gate, Flame Princess kept a careful eye on the bizarre creature as it approached, generating a fireball between her palms and turning it over and over like a snowball, packing the flame into liquid plasma. Neither of the Gumball Guardians were reacting, which suggested that this thing wasn't a threat, but the fire girl still wasn't convinced. She supposed that it could be a visitor from another kingdom here for the solstice, but the only thing she'd ever seen that had looked anything like it had been in a book about the demons of the Nightosphere.

Then, as the beast rapidly grew closer, Flame Princess almost dropped the fireball in shock as she saw its face, and recognised it at once. For a moment she thought it was Jermaine, then realised the eyebrows were different, and remembered the stretching arms that had snagged Finn out of the tree stump they'd hidden in back in the grounds of the Royal Congressional Hall. It was Jake. And the head poking up over his shoulder, which she'd assumed to be the strange creature's second head, was a rider. Who she also recognised immediately.

_"Uhm... Goodbye I guess," the human boy said awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Maybe I'll come visit you in the Candy Kingdom if you still live there when I'm older?"_

"Finn!" Clapping her hands together to smash the fireball between them into fading shreds of flame, the young elemental launched herself back into the air and headed to meet the boy and his brother, laughing excitedly.

o.o.o.o.o

"I swear to Glob, Finn, if you ask just one more time, you're walking the rest of the way." Jake grumbled as he strode across the hills with ease. "I already told ya, running on all fours is harder than it looks, 'specially when it's like you're on freakin' stilts."

"Okay Jake," the boy sighed. "But are we nearly there yet? Woah!" Finn had to clutch tightly to Jake's fur as the dog stopped abruptly, almost throwing him off.

"Warned you, bro." Digging his feet into the ground, Jake refused to take another step. "Either ya get off, or I roll over. Your choice."

"Oh come on Jake, I'm sorry already!" the boy wailed. "I was only gonna ask that one more time. This is total junk. I bet you don't even know the way to the Candy Kingdom."

"What, you mean that big castle over there?" Jake asked casually, pointing towards it as he shrank back to his usual size and stood up. "The one that's gonna take ya forever to get to on those stubby legs of yours?" He grinned at the crestfallen look on his brother's face before turning back towards the castle. "Looks like it's still a good few miles away. Bet you wish you'd left that backpack at the tree now. Have fun, bro."

Finn glared at Jake sulkily, folding his arms. "You suck, man. But I am totally gonna walk it, just you wait and see. Piece of cake."

"Yeah, cake sounds good about now." Stretching his legs out to their previous length, Jake waved down at the boy. "I think I'll go get some. They've got this great little patisserie over on the west side, I'll meet you there. Might be closed by the time you arrive though." The dog began to chuckle at Finn's expression, but the sound died in his throat as a bright flash caught the corner of his eye. "Uhhhh… actually we should probably take cover. Looks like they've launched a missile at us."

"They WHAT?!" Finn gasped as Jake hit the ground, covering his head. He looked up to see a glowing shape streaking low across the grass towards them, but before he could throw himself down like his brother, it had reached them and snatched him into the air.

"You remembered to visit!" Flame Princess was so glad to see the human boy that she didn't even notice that she was unconsciously singing his shirt. "I thought you'd forgotten all about me!"

"Flame Princess!" Finn's voice was equally enthusiastic, and not only did he fail to realise that faint wisps of smoke were rising from where her hands had caught hold of his clothes, he also didn't see the huge hand that stretched up beside them, then slapped them both to the ground like a gigantic flyswatter.

"You okay there Finn?" Jake asked worriedly. He hadn't gotten a good look at the thing that had grabbed his brother - it had been moving too fast - but luckily he'd been able to catch them both before it could make off with Finn. Then he yelped as something burned his hand, before quickly snatching it away. "Ow! Globbit, what in the math IS that… oh nuts, it's a princess." Even if he'd never seen Flame Princess before, the gem set in the girl's forehead was enough to confirm her royal status, and Jake chuckled nervously. "Uhhh, sorry your highness, I thought you were kidnapping my brother. False alarm. Wait, I know you…"

"It's Flame Princess, dude. Remember?" Finn explained as he helped the fire girl back to her feet. "You okay?" he asked worriedly. "Sorry about Jake, he's a freaking bonehead sometimes."

"Hey!" the dog objected indignantly, but neither of them paid any attention to him.

"I'm fine," the fire girl replied, dusting herself off as the grass and dirt sticking to her was reduced to ashes with a quick blast of heat. "I did kind of surprise you, it's not Jake's fault. Uhm…" She shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, looking downwards as she scored faint scorch lines in the ground with one toe. "You were coming to visit me, right? I didn't just jump you for no reason, did I?"

"No, we were totally coming to visit," Finn reassured her. "Didn't your mom tell you? She came over to our tree fort the other night because she wanted to know who was living there."

Flame Princess was bewildered for a moment until she remembered the light she'd seen out on the Grass Lands after the meteor shower. She had asked Princess Bubblegum about it the next morning, but all her mother had told her was that it was nothing to worry about. "No, she never said anything about it being you guys. I wonder why…"

"You don't think it's because she doesn't want us hanging out, do you?" Finn looked worried now. "I mean, she said we could visit whenever she wanted… this isn't like Opposite Kingdom where you have to do the opposite of whatever they tell you, right?"

Before Finn could get himself confused trying to apply reversed logic, Jake quickly interrupted him. "She probably just wanted it to be a surprise. I wouldn't worry about it," the dog told him. "This isn't like Opposite Kingdom."

His brother looked at him suspiciously, and not without reason. "Are you messing with me again Jake? That's just what you'd say if it WAS like Opposite Kingdom here. You spent that whole adventure telling me to do exactly what I wasn't to do because I was supposed to do the opposite because…" Groaning, the boy rubbed at his temples in confusion. "Ugh, now I have a logic ache again…"

"Uhh, I don't know what Opposite Kingdom is…" Flame Princess looked even more perplexed than Finn. "But you don't have to do the opposite of what people say in the Candy Kingdom. That would be totally gronked. And Jake's probably right," she added. "My mom probably wanted it to be a surprise; I told her all about you and she never said anything about not being allowed to hang out with you."

"Yeah, so stop getting yourself confused and get on," Jake said, getting back on all fours and morphing to the rough size and shape of a headless horse. "But only because I want to get you to the Candy Kingdom faster so you'll stop freaking out about it being Opposite Kingdom."

"Mathematical!" Leaping onto Jake's back, Finn looked back towards Flame Princess. "You wanna ride on Jake too, Princess?" He didn't see the way his brother winced at the suggestion, but Jake made no objection and just gritted his teeth instead, hoping that Flame Princess wouldn't burn his back like she had his hand.

"No, I can just fly back," the fire girl replied, and Jake breathed a silent sigh of relief. "Follow me!" Flame Princess took off towards the castle and the dog followed, stretching his legs out to keep up with her as Finn clung to his back.

"Man, she's pretty fast," Jake commented to his brother, who was watching Flame Princess with a mixture of admiration and envy. "You should ask if she wants to come adventuring with us sometime; having a lantern that can fly would be really useful in a dungeon."

"Jake!" Finn's voice was outraged. "She is not a lantern, she's a princess! Princesses don't go into dungeons! Well, except for Skeleton Princess. And Jailer Princess. And sometimes Beetle Princess. But they're supposed to be in dungeons. Normal princesses don't do that kind of junk. They're girls."

The dog chuckled, slowing his pace to let Flame Princess get further ahead of them. "Bro, you have a lot to learn about ladies, you can't just assume they don't do certain things because they're girls. Let me tell you a story about Grandma and how she met Grandpa…"


	21. Chapter 21

"And that is why girls are just as good at adventures as guys." Jake was just finishing his story as they drew up to the gates of the Candy Kingdom. "And also how our grandparents met. If it hadn't been for that dungeon then we wouldn't even be here."

"Woah, that was totally math! Grandma kicked so much butt!" Finn had been silent for most of Jake's tale, listening intently with wide eyes and occasionally kicking his brother without thinking when it got tense. "Was she really part wolf?"

"Well, her maiden name was 'the Wolfdog', so I'd assume so, yeah." Jake replied. "Though she did look a lot like Dad so I think the wolf part was a good few generations back."

"It's still awesome though," Finn went on, his eyes shining. "I wish I was part wolf. What happened to the evil wax golem that Grandpa was trapped in? Did it escape after Grandma sliced it open, since being cut to bits by Grandpa didn't stop it before?"

"Heck, no!" Jake snorted indignantly. "Like she was gonna let that thing get away. She melted it down and made it into scented candles, because Grandma was freaking hardcore. Maybe that still didn't kill it," he added with a shrug. "But those candles were still in her bathroom forty years later. She used to say that if you listened real hard while they were burning, you'd still hear the golem screeching."

"Mathematical..." Finn breathed softly, then looked up to see the cream walls looming over them. "Oh hey, we're here! Where did Flame Princess go?"

"I think she just flew over the wall, dude." Stopping by the moat, Jake waited for Finn to jump off his back, and then returned to his normal form. "We should use the front door though; it's more polite since we don't live here. Oh, and don't eat anything that has a face. If it has a face, it's not food."

Finn was looking around himself curiously; the sweet smells of the Candy Kingdom starting to make him hungry. "I thought the kingdom was just made of candy," he remarked. "Are the people candy too? Flame Princess isn't candy..."

In response, Jake just pointed ahead of them as they strolled across the drawbridge and into the gatehouse. Candy people were bustling around the plaza that the gatehouse opened on to, a marshmallow sweeping the paving stones, a couple of gumdrops hanging bright streamers from the lampposts and two Banana Guards keeping watch on the inner gate. "I keep forgetting you've not been here before, bro," Jake said, chuckling at the look on Finn's face. "It's a pretty awesome place, but remember, no eating things that have a face."

"Hey guys," Flame Princess landed in front of them, looking somewhat contrite. "Sorry, I went straight to the castle. I forgot that you wouldn't be able to fly over the walls like me." She waved to the Banana Guards, who nodded respectfully in return.

"That's okay, Jake said it would be more polite for us to use the gate since we don't live here," Finn replied quickly. "What are all the decorations for?"

"They're for the Summer Solstice Saturnalia tomorrow night," Flame Princess advised helpfully. "You should definitely come to that, it's totally awesome."

"Yeah, it's like an all-night party," Jake added. "I've been before; it's a great time for ste- SEEING the Candy Kingdom. Do you still have the big fireworks display at midnight?"

The young elemental nodded enthusiastically in response. "Yes, that's my favourite part! And I get to stay up all night which is pretty math as well. First everyone watches the sun set then there's the fireworks then four hours later the sun rises again. And there's music and food and a big bonfire in the park. Mom says that people used to believe that the fire drove witches and evil spirits away but there's witches who come to the festival so that's just another reason why superstition is a bunch of junk."

"They're not evil witches, are they?" Finn asked suspiciously. "Because if they are then I have to punch them, that's hero rules."

Flame Princess thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, I don't remember them doing anything bad," she replied. "And the Gumball Guardians wouldn't let them in if they were evil."

"Oh." The human boy looked disappointed as he lowered the fists that he'd already raised in anticipation. "Never mind then." He was about to ask more about the festival when he was abruptly interrupted by Jake as the dog caught sight of something in the sky.

"Woah, does Lady Rainicorn come to this thing too?" Jake asked, watching her loop lazily through the sky towards the Candy Castle. His eyes were wide and shining, and Finn exchanged a confused glance with Flame Princess. Neither of them quite understood the dog's reaction to seeing Lady.

"Yes," Flame Princess waved to Lady as she replied, the rainicorn waved back but didn't stop. "She turns the castle all bright colours for the night; she's probably going to see my mom."

"Maybe we should go see your mom as well," Jake suggested eagerly. "Since, uh, she did invite us here and all, it would be polite. And Finn, didn't you want to ask if you could be a knight for the kingdom?"

"Yeah, I totally did!" the boy exclaimed. "You think she'd let me?" The question was directed at both his brother and Flame Princess. "She's not going to say I'm too young or anything? How old are the other knights?"

"Uhhhh..." The fire girl considered that, and then shook her head. "I don't think the Candy Kingdom HAS any knights," she said with a shrug. "Just Banana Guards. I bet she'd let you be a knight though," Flame Princess added reassuringly. "What does a knight even do?"

"A knight fights monsters, and rescues princesses - or princes - and goes on quests and adventures and explores dungeons and helps people and..." Finn's explanation was both enthusiastic and rapid, accompanied by dramatic gestures which culminated in him drawing a golden-bladed sword. "...and they're total heroes!" he finished, thrusting the weapon into the air. "Just like my dad."

"Yeah, yeah, just like Dad," Jake seemed to be getting impatient, shifting from one foot to the other as he looked towards the castle. Lady Rainicorn had already landed on a balcony and disappeared inside. "So let's go see the Princess like right now and see what she says."

"Okay Jake," Finn agreed willingly, sliding his sword back into the loops on his backpack then looking towards Flame Princess. "Can you take us to see your mom?"

The young elemental shook her head reluctantly. "No, not right now. Mom's working on the fireworks for tomorrow night," she explained. "So I have to keep away because I'm incandescent and I can light things like phosphorus and magnesium just by being near them because they're pyrophoric. It's not so bad once they're in rockets, but till then I can't be in the same room, and Mom prefers it if I'm not even in the castle in case there's an accident. But you can still go," she added, not without a touch of disappointment. "I'm sure she'd see you."

If anything, Finn seemed even less enamoured by the prospect of leaving Flame Princess behind. "Oh. I was kind of hoping we could hang out for a while, I've never been to the Candy Kingdom before and I'd like to look around, this place seems totally rad..."

"Well how about I go see Lady Ra- I mean Princess Bubblegum - while you kids socialise?" Jake said quickly, glancing back at them. "After all Finn, you won't need me to show you around if you're with Flame Princess. She'll know more about this place than I do anyway since she lives here."

"Yeah, I can show you around!" the fire girl said happily. "I know all about the Candy Kingdom, I've lived here my whole life."

"Okay!" It took less than a second for Finn to make up his mind, nodding eagerly. "I'll see you later Jake... Jake?" But the dog was already disappearing along the main thoroughfare that led to the castle.

"Yeahseeyoulaterbye," his voice floated back to them. "And stay out of trouble!" With that, he turned a corner and disappeared from view.

"Huh, I wonder what's got Jake so wound up…" Finn pondered, frowning slightly. "You don't think your mom's going to think I'm not polite because I'm not going to see her too, do you?" he asked anxiously, but Flame Princess shook her head. "Okay then… uhm… you wanna go get something to eat?"

o.o.o.o.o

A short while later, the human boy and the fire girl were sitting outside a small café, where the lollipop man at the counter inside had steadfastly refused to accept payment for their food. He had insisted that he wouldn't have made Princess Bubblegum pay, and since Flame Princess was her daughter, that applied to her as well. The young elemental had thanked him bashfully, then headed outside with Finn who had seemed extremely impressed.

It had only taken moments for Flame Princess to reduce her cupcake to ashes between her hands, which the human boy seemed taken aback by, but he hadn't commented. Though he was definitely eating his oversized slice of apple pie faster than was healthy.

"S' really goo'," he said with his mouth full, then paused and swallowed. "I mean it's really good. Almost as good as the ones Tree Trunks makes."

"You know Tree Trunks?" Flame Princess perked up at the mention of the pygmy elephant's name. She'd only met her a few times, but the fire girl liked the softly spoken pachyderm.

"Yeah, she was friends with my mom," Finn explained, taking another bite of his pie. "She lives near me and Jake's tree fort; she brought us apple pies the day we moved in. And I still don't know how she knew we were there, but Jake said it was old lady intuition. How do you know her?"

Flame Princess couldn't help giggling at the question as she remembered. "Oh, it was when I was still really small. Pepbutt, sorry, Peppermint Butler was supposed to be watching me, but I got out of the castle and ran off into the woods…"

o.o.o.o.o

_"Flame Princess you get back here right now or I am going to tell your mother!" Peppermint Butler's yell was loud enough to reach the little elemental's ears, but the words meant very little to the two year-old fire girl. She liked the chasing game, and unlike the mint man she didn't have to stop to quickly stamp out the small fires that formed in her wake._

_This time however, the trees were safe. Flame Princess was more interested in keeping away from Peppermint Butler than setting them alight. Besides, these ones had lots of red things hanging from them, bright as live coals, and she liked the colour. She could hear Peppermint's shouts still echoing behind her, and then she stopped dead and toppled onto her backside with a bump as she heard an unfamiliar, female voice._

_"Lan' sakes, Peppermint, are you up to some awful, unglobly business in these here woods again?" The speaker was a tiny yellow-green elephant who trundled out of the bushes carrying a picnic basket on her back and looking distinctly displeased. "Ah already told you it makes the apples go sour, and sour apples ain't no good to..." The miniature elephant stopped mid-sentence as she noticed Flame Princess, but didn't show any sign of fear. "Oh, hello there missy. Are you lost?"_

_Stumbling back to her feet, the little elemental chuckled and ran towards this new creature with her hands outstretched, expecting her to make loud noises and run away so she could chase after. Instead, the elephant held up her trunk placatingly, only flinching a little at the heat beating off the fire girl._

_"Woah there sugar, y'all are hotter than a darn oven after a hard day's baking. Just give me a minute…" Again, the words made little sense to Flame Princess, but they were calm and unhurried, which threw her a little. The only other person who spoke like that to her was the pink lady that she thought was her mother. Poking her trunk into the picnic basket, the elephant seemed to feel around in it for a moment, then pulled it back out, this time with an oven mitt over it. "There we go. My name's Tree Trunks, what's yours?"_

_Flame Princess' response was a confused gurgle. Things not running away from her was a relatively new experience, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. Making a loud noise that was half chortle and half excited squeal, she windmilled small arms at Tree Trunks in an attempt to make her run away. Instead, the elephant patted her on the head with her gloved trunk._

_"Oh, ah see. Y'all are just a little thing, ain't ya? How 'bout you simmer down and sit a spell, an' we can have tea?" As Tree Trunks turned away to search her basket again, Flame Princess plopped back down onto the lightly smouldering grass, bewildered by the lack of running, but reassured by the elephant's soothing voice. "Here we are," Tree Trunks continued, pulling a copper kettle out of the basket, and passing it to Flame Princess. "Hold this a second, will you sweetpea?"_

_The kettle sloshed as the fire girl automatically took hold of it with both hands, and she looked at it curiously. The metal rapidly began to heat in her grasp, then to her amazement it started making an odd, warbling whistle as steam hissed out of its spout. Tree Trunks looked around in surprise, lifting a small bundle of firewood from her basket._

_"Well, ah'll be," the pygmy elephant exclaimed. "You boiled that all by yourself, ain't that handy? Just as well really, 'cause ah ain't the best when it comes to woodcraft, takes me forever to get a decent fire going." Seeing that Flame Princess was reaching towards the jet of steam with a curious hand, Tree Trunks held out her trunk to stop her. "Woah there sugar, you don't wanna be touching that. Could give yourself a nasty burn."_

_Lowering her hand obediently, Flame Princess let the miniature elephant take the kettle from her and place it down. She watched with interest as Tree Trunks produced a pair of china teacups and saucers from the basket, setting one in front of herself and the other in front of the fire girl, then filled both with dark amber liquid from the kettle._

_"Well, ah'm afraid ah don't got any milk with me," Tree Trunks said apologetically. "But it's Earl Grey, so it's good without it too." Shaking her trunk out of the oven mitt, she used it to lift her teacup to her mouth and sip at it delicately. Flame Princess watched her with some confusion, then took a long, hard look at her own cup. It reminded her of the liquid she'd seen back in the castle gardens, only that had been in a big pool in the ground. She'd put a hand in it and it had hurt so badly that all the plants within a ten-foot radius had been incinerated when she'd screamed._

_Cautiously reaching out towards the cup, feeling more confident as she felt the heat coming off it, Flame Princess gingerly poked at the contents with one finger. There was an immediate hiss as a thread of steam rose up from her fingertip which seared with pain as she snatched it away, whimpering._

_"Oh good heavens!" Seizing the girl's teacup in her trunk before there were any further mishaps. Tree Trunks hurriedly emptied it onto the ground. "Ah'm so very sorry about that, sweetpea. Ah should have realised that you're one of those fire elemental types. But you're just so nice and polite next to those dreadful hooligans that ah never guessed, ah thought you must be some other type."_

_The fire girl had instinctively put her finger in her mouth, the pain fading as it warmed again. The shock had frightened her more than it had hurt her, but Tree Trunks' gentle voice calmed her before she could set anything on fire. In a hazy, baby way she was beginning to realise that although she liked being on fire, the people around her didn't. Fire hurt them like water hurt her and while she did enjoy the chasing game; she didn't want to hurt anyone. So when Tree Trunks took her hand with her re-gloved trunk to examine it, Flame Princess let her instead of reacting with fire._

_Inspecting the little elemental's hand carefully, Tree Trunks sighed in relief as she saw that the darkened finger was rapidly brightening again. "There we go, no harm done." Letting the girl's hand go, the pygmy elephant patted it comfortingly. "Who's a brave girl then?" Reaching back into the basket, Tree Trunks pulled out a large oatmeal cookie and handed it to Flame Princess. "There you go sugar, have that instead."_

_The cookie immediately began to singe in Flame Princess' grasp, but this was something she understood. She'd been given these things before. Putting it in her mouth, she gnawed on it as it burst into flames. Tree Trunks didn't seem perturbed by this in the slightest, and continued to calmly drink her tea._

_That was how Peppermint Butler found them a few minutes later when he stumbled through the trees, gasping for breath. He'd lost track of Flame Princess once she'd quietened down, so it had taken him a while to locate her, and he stopped dead in amazement as he saw her sitting with a remarkably unscorched Tree Trunks. The mint man was too worn out to run over to them and walked across to where they were sitting instead. This was fortunate for him as running would have immediately indicated to Flame Princess that the chasing game was back on._

_"There you are!" Peppermint exclaimed as he reached them, exasperated but extremely glad that he'd found her. He'd been starting to worry that he'd actually lost her, which would have been extremely difficult to explain to Princess Bubblegum._

_"Oh, howdy Peppermint," Tree Trunks said politely as Flame Princess waved an ash-dusted hand at him cheerfully. "Want some tea?"_

_"What? I… well… yes, actually." Peppermint Butler was thirsty after his run through the woods, and it didn't look like Flame Princess was about to start running away again. He sat down beside them, keeping a careful eye on the fire girl, but she seemed perfectly happy where she was. "I must have been chasing her for hours, how did you get her to stay put?" Despite himself, the mint man was extremely curious about that detail._

_"Well, you probably just got her all riled up," Tree Trunks replied as she poured him a cup of tea and pushed it over to him. "She's been no trouble at all; she's a nice, polite young lady."_

_"Of course she is," Peppermint muttered sarcastically to himself as he lifted the cup. "Tell that to Toast Princess…"_

o.o.o.o.o

Finn was giggling helplessly as Flame Princess finished the story; he'd been laughing since she'd described the tiny elephant's initial reaction to her. "That sounds like Tree Trunks," he sniggered. "Me and Jake were fighting this mean dragon out in her woods while she was picking apples, and she just kept on picking them while the dragon was knocking over trees and junk, saying 'you boys have fun' or something like that."

"She was the first person apart from my mom who didn't scream and run away when they saw me," Flame Princess explained. "When I was little I thought it was funny, but it was really because people were scared that I'd set them on fire."

"That kinda sucks," Finn said sympathetically. "But people don't do that now, right?"

Flame Princess shook her head. "Not any more, I don't set things on fire accidentally now. Unless they're pyrophoric, then I can't help it," she added. "But none of the candy people are like that so it's fine."

"So… uhm…" Finn shifted nervously in his seat, feeling awkward about his next question. "Are you part candy person? I wasn't sure because of the being made of fire thing, but then I thought maybe you're a type of candy that's also fire but I couldn't think of the type of candy that would be and, uhhhh…" His voice trailed off uneasily as the fire girl looked away, eyes downcast.

"Princess Bubblegum isn't my real mom," Flame Princess' voice was quiet; the confession sounding like it had been torn from her by force. "She adopted me when I was a baby. But she's still my mom," she continued obstinately. "And if anyone says otherwise I will light them on fire!"

"It's okay, I understand," Finn replied, his tone conciliatory. "Actually I think it's really neat that you're adopted, because…"

"You what?!" Recoiling at those words, Flame Princess pulled away from the table, hurt by the seemingly casual dismissal of her abandonment. She didn't find it neat in the slightest, some days she wished that she'd never even found out about it in the first place. "Why would you even say that?"

Looking both surprised and remorseful at her reaction, Finn drew back slightly, looking away awkwardly. "Uhm… because I'm adopted too?" he offered lamely, the words coming out as a nervous squeak. "So I totally understand what it's like…"

"Oh. I see." Pulling her seat back over to the table, feeling slightly foolish now, Flame Princess glanced towards the human boy. His head was lowered; a sweep of long blonde hair escaping from under his hat to hang across his eyes, but a glint of blue between golden strands told her that he was still looking at her timidly. "Sorry, I thought you were making fun of me," she said apologetically. "So… you were adopted as well? What happened to your parents?"

Strangely, Finn seemed to brighten at that question. Perhaps because Flame Princess was no longer angry with him. "I don't know," he replied as he raised his head. "I was only a little baby when Jake's mom and dad found me in the forest. I don't remember my real parents, or how I got there, just that I was all alone and I cried and cried because I'd… uhh… gotten stuck to a leaf but nobody helped me until Jake's parents found me and took me home. What about you?"

Flame Princess' expression had softened after hearing Finn's story, since she could emphasize with him completely. "I don't remember my real parents either," she replied. "The first thing I do remember is that there was lots of fire, then my mom found me. She said I came from the Fire Kingdom, but I don't remember how I got to the surface." The fire girl paused, her expression twisting sourly. "She said my father didn't have time for me, so she adopted me. I don't know what happened to my birth mother."

"I'm sorry," Finn's face was drawn with sympathetic pain. "I don't know why my parents left me in the woods, maybe something happened to them and they were trying to hide me. Nobody's ever seen another human in Ooo so I guess that they're dead. Your dad sounds like a total butt though."

"It's okay, I don't even care about him," Flame Princess' was trying to sound nonchalant, but couldn't hide the edge of defiance in her tone. "I've never even seen him. I've lived in the Candy Kingdom since I was a baby so this is my home, and Princess Bubblegum is my mom. That's all that matters to me."

Fin n nodded in agreement. "I totally get you on that. Except for the part about the Candy Kingdom being my home because I live in a tree. But Jake's parents were my parents, and that's all that was important to me. It doesn't matter who your real parents are."

The fire girl smiled shyly, glad that he understood. Ever since she'd found out that she was adopted she'd had an unsettling doubt at the back of her mind that maybe she didn't belong in the Candy Kingdom after all, but for Finn to just accept it at face value was reassuring. "Do you still want to go look around the kingdom?" she asked, and he nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, that would be math!" Finn sprang to his feet and Flame Princess followed suit. "Where should we go first?"

"We could go to the castle gardens," she suggested. "That'll be okay because it's not inside the castle, and Mom has all sorts of weird plants growing there. Have you ever seen a Sleeping Gate Bramble?"

"Nope, what does it do?" Following Flame Princess as she headed off through the streets, Finn quickly caught up with her and took her hand without thinking. His mother had always told him it was very important not to get separated when he was in a strange place. Though his father had always added that dungeons didn't count because then you kept hitting things until it stopped being strange. However, the Candy Kingdom was most definitely not a dungeon.

Starting slightly at the unexpected contact, Flame Princess only just managed to keep her combustion levels under control instead of letting them rise in surprise. The young elemental looked back at Finn to see that he apparently didn't think anything of it and was looking around at the buildings with interest. He also didn't seem bothered by the fact that her hand was much hotter than his own, as if that was perfectly natural as well.

Feeling her face flush regardless, the fire girl quickly looked away, hoping Finn hadn't noticed. But she didn't let go of his hand.


	22. Chapter 22

With a ferocious yell, Finn launched himself forwards, his scratched fists flailing wildly. Just like the last three times, the Sleeping Gate Bramble met his charge with vegetative indifference as he crashed into it with as much effect as he would have had on a brick wall. The impact hurled him backwards to the ground, winding him, as Flame Princess giggled.

"I told you it wouldn't work," the young elemental said, shaking her head. She was suspended in the middle of the circular hedgerow that the bramble formed in the palace garden with only her head poking out, the plant's dense branches holding her up and completely immune to her heat levels. She'd already shown Finn how she could blast the bramble with fire for ten minutes and achieve nothing except to form a thin layer of soot on its leaves. "I didn't even feel that."

Getting back to his feet with a growl - still unable to accept that he'd been beaten by a hedge that wasn't even sentient - Finn drew his sword. It was bad enough that he couldn't force his way through this thing, but for some reason the fact that Flame Princess was watching his repeated failures made him feel ten times worse. And ten times angrier at the plant that had embarrassed him. Rushing towards the bramble, he swung his sword at it as hard as he could.

"No, Finn, wait!" Flame Princess' warning came too late as the weapon's golden blade struck the plant's branches with a spray of sparks and a discordant clang of sundered metal that set her teeth on edge. Finn yelled in pain as the shockwave vibrated through his bones as if they were tuning forks, the sword hilt dropping from his nerveless fingers. The blade had broken cleanly at the point where it had struck the bramble, which was completely unscathed. An entire foot of the sword blade had been catapulted backwards by the impact, narrowly missing the human boy, and was now quivering like a lawn dart in the grass behind him.

"Are you okay?" the fire girl asked anxiously. She tried to move towards him, but as she had tensed from shock and concern, the bramble held her firmly in place. "Ah, glob!" Closing her eyes, Flame Princess took several deep, calming breaths like her mother had taught her and tried to relax. She slowly sunk through the branches to the ground, though they tugged mutinously at her skin and clothes as if the plant wasn't entirely convinced by her sudden tranquillity. Flame Princess knew that if she let that bother her, she'd just get stuck again, and focused on staying relaxed as she calmly stepped out of the hedge to where Finn was hopping around in a tight, pained circle as he tried to shake some feeling back into his numb hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" Although he was trying to laugh it off, Finn's voice came out as a choked grimace rather than the casual chuckle he'd intended. Turning his back on the fire girl with feigned nonchalance so that she wouldn't see him blushing bright red from sheer humiliation, Finn's eyes widened in horror as he saw the golden blade half-buried in the turf. Glancing down to the hilt at his feet, he yelped as he saw that over half the blade was missing. "Oh no!" This time he didn't even try to disguise his tone, which was now a shrill squawk of dismay. "My dad gave me that sword! I can't believe I broke it..."

Flame Princess watched silently as the boy dropped to his knees and lifted the broken hilt as tenderly as if it was an infant instead of a weapon, turning it over and over in his hands as if he thought that might somehow fix it. She couldn't help feeling responsible for what had happened; it had been her idea to go to the palace gardens. And she should have warned him not to try using a weapon on the Sleeping Gate Bramble. Going over to where the broken blade had landed, the fire girl tugged it free and brought it back to Finn, sitting beside him as she handed it to him. "I'm sorry," she said apologetically as he took it from her. "I should have said not to try and cut the bramble..."

Finn didn't look up, infinitely glad that he had managed to swallow back his tears but uncomfortably aware that his eyes were still wet and shining. "It wasn't your fault," he replied, quietly and slowly to hide the tremble in his voice. "You did try to warn me, but I didn't listen. Jermaine always used to say that me and Jake listen to impulse before listening to our brains. I'm not sure what that means, but I think it's something to do with us doing dumb things before we realise they're dumb." He pressed the broken ends of the sword together in the momentary, foolish hope that they would somehow stick together. But he wasn't surprised when they didn't. "I can always get another sword," he added with forced brightness, finally raising his head to see that Flame Princess' gaze was fixed firmly on the sword as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully in unconscious imitation of her mother.

Watching Finn try to push the sword blade back into one piece had given the young elemental an idea. It had reminded her of glass working, taking two separate pieces of solid glass and heating the ends until they could be fused together in a permanent bond. Maybe she could do the same thing with metal, though she remembered her mother saying that metal had to be quenched in water to make it strong. That was why the fire girl wasn't allowed to try metalwork yet; Princess Bubblegum still thought that the water involved made it too dangerous for her. But it wouldn't be harmful to Finn.

"Follow me," she said as she got back to her feet and darted over to the bramble hedge. She could just have flown over it, but figured that it would be easier for Finn to get through it if he watched her first. "Like I showed you before; if you relax then you can slide right through." Taking a deep breath, Flame Princess exhaled slowly and let herself topple forwards into the bramble, offering no resistance. It glowed red around her, letting her pass through with ease.

Finn followed suit, with more than a little trepidation. But when he fell forwards, his face mashed into an impenetrable bramble thicket. "It's not working," he called to the fire girl, his voice muffled by foliage. He rocked his body against the hedge a couple of times, but it didn't shift in the slightest. "Is it holding a grudge?"

"No, that just means that you're not relaxed enough," Flame Princess replied from the other side. "Think of something that makes you calm."

There was a short, awkward pause as Finn racked his brains, briefly thinking about hot cocoa to no effect. Then it hit him: his mom's lullaby. Almost without thinking, he began to hum the melody and leaned his weight against the hedge. "...slip your slippers on your footies..." Automatically mumbling the words to himself, Finn slowly began to sink into the bramble. "In the morning you'll get- woah!" Suddenly it was as if the hedge was completely insubstantial and Finn fell through it like it was mist. He only just managed to raise his arms in time to stop himself from smashing face-first into uneven octagonal paving stones. "Where are we?" he asked as he looked around at what seemed to be an extremely neglected section of the gardens.

"This is the oldest part of the gardens," Flame Princess told him. "Mom says it's from before the Mushroom War. It was like this before the Candy Kingdom ever existed." The two children were standing at the edge of a wide circular plaza that had once been entirely paved, but now the octagonal stones had become lopsided and cracked by the roots of the plants growing around and between them. In the centre of the plaza was a tall fountain that was overgrown with moss and aquatic plants, but still functioning. A jet of water sprayed high into the air from the topmost bowl, then fell down into a larger one and cascaded over its sides into the main pool below. The entire plaza was surrounded by the Sleeping Gate Bramble, and here and there it had engulfed the broken and rusted remains of park benches. "Mom planted the hedge around it to protect it; she says she likes it this way because it reminds her of when she was little."

"This place must be mad old," Finn replied, slowly approaching the fountain and taking care not to trip on the jutting paving stones. Looking over the lip of the pool, he saw that the surface of the water was almost entirely covered by water lilies. A couple of frogs that were perched on the floating leaves looked at him curiously but didn't move, and he caught a glimpse of a huge golden shape drifting through the water below. "Hey, this is kinda like the pond out by me and Jake's tree fort. Except with a fountain."

Stepping up beside him, but keeping a respectful distance from the falling water, Flame Princess held out her hand. "Can I see your sword?" she asked, trying to remember what little she knew about metalworking. She'd read a bit about it when she'd been learning about glassworking but hadn't paid much attention. It needed a lot of heat like glass, but it also needed a hammer? Something to do with striking the metal while it was hot.

"Sure, here you go," the boy said, handing her the broken pieces. "Careful, it should still be wicked sharp." He watched curiously as the girl knelt down on the flattest section of paving that she could find, setting the blade and hilt on the ground in front of her and looking at them curiously. "Uhhhh... what are you doing?"

"Do you have a hammer?" Flame Princess was barely paying attention to him now, pushing the pieces of the sword together to see how they fit. A chip was missing from each side, but the break was perfectly clean and smooth; like broken glass. And she knew how to fix glass.

"Maybe, let me check..." Taking off his pack, Finn rummaged in it for a few moments then pulled out a slightly rusted claw hammer that he'd been using for repairs back at the tree fort. He'd put it in his pack afterwards because hammers were useful things to keep handy, as Flame Princess' request had just proved. "I've got this one," he continued, flipping it over in his grasp to offer the handle to the fire girl.

Taking the tool, the young elemental set it down next to herself. Picking up the broken sword, one piece in each hand, she held it firmly right where it had broken and glanced towards Finn with sudden concern. "It might be best if you moved away a bit," she advised. "This is gonna get really, really hot."

"Okay..." Finn's tone was doubtful, but he took several steps back all the same, following the curve of the fountain. Once she thought he was at a safe distance, Flame Princess turned her attention back to the sword then closed her eyes as she focused.

Visualising the heat currents running through her body in her mind's eye, the young elemental imagined channelling them into her hands instead of her hair. Frowning in concentration, her grip tightened on the broken blade though she took care not to cut herself. Metal conducted heat well, she knew that, and once her hands were hot she pictured the heat currents travelling into the sundered ends of the sword blade, heating them until they were pliable. A few moments later she felt the formerly hard steel give slightly in her grasp, her fingertips sinking into the heated metal, and she opened her eyes to see that both halves of the blade were glowing a dull red, brightening into an incandescent buttercup yellow along the broken edges.

Flame Princess heard Finn mutter something that sounded awestruck but paid no attention, concentrating on the sword. While constant practice and encouragement from her mother had made her reasonably adept at manipulating her combustion levels, losing her control over them when they were so tightly focused would result in them going wild until she got them back in hand, and she wasn't in a fireproof room this time. Shifting her grip on the broken weapon - its snapped edges softened from heat now instead of hard and clean - she carefully pushed the blade back together and gently set it down on the ground.

The near-molten metal merged together like thick glue, leaving an obvious seam where the two halves had joined but Flame Princess wasn't worried about that. Still with the same precise control, she gradually let her heat currents flow back into their normal patterns, flowing upwards to her hair. Waiting until she felt her hands cool, the fire girl lifted the hammer and began to strike the reformed sword blade with even, regular strokes.

"Woah!" Finn skipped backwards a bit further to avoid the sparks that went skittering across the uneven flagstones with each blow, then hopped up onto the lip of the fountain to get a better look at what Flame Princess was doing. "Why are you hitting it?" he asked curiously.

"To align the grain of the metal and get rid of the seam," the young elemental explained. "At least I think that's what hammering it does," she added with a note of hesitation. "Normally I make stuff with glass." Flipping the blade over, she hammered the other side as well, trying to get it as smooth as possible because that felt like the right thing to do. "Mom said I couldn't do metalwork 'til I was older because there's too much water involved." Continuing to hammer until she was satisfied and the metal had cooled enough to make the hilt safe for Finn to handle, she reversed her hold on the weapon and held it out to him pommel-first. "Here, you need to cool it in the fountain. But don't put it in the main pool, use the bigger bowl."

"Okay," the boy replied, gingerly taking hold of the hilt and relieved to find that although it was warm, it didn't burn. "Why not in the pool?" he asked curiously.

"Because you might hurt the things that live in there, silly," Flame Princess' tone indicated that she thought this was obvious. Since her mother liked this bit of the garden, she had no intention of damaging it. "I can lift you up there if it's too high."

"I don't need lifted!" Finn retorted indignantly, though in truth he was glad to have an opportunity to show off a little. Twirling the sword in his grasp, he hurled it upwards as hard and high as he could, then leapt for the fountain's lower bowl. His fingers snagged the worn stone edge, but one hand slipped on a patch of algae and lost its grip, leaving him dangling awkwardly by one arm as one of his feet splashed into the pool below.

Above him, the sword that was still glowing a baleful red reached the top of its arc and started to fall towards him. Flame Princess was about to launch herself into the air to catch it when Finn, who didn't seem concerned in the slightest, swung himself to the side and up with a powerful heave of his arm. Hooking one foot over the lip of the bowl, he rolled himself into it with a splash then sprang back to his feet and snatched the sword's hilt as it spun lazily through the air.

"See?" Finn asked, apparently completely indifferent to the fact that he was now soaking wet. "That was easy, I've done way more jacked-up things than that."

"That was totally spice!" Flame Princess was looking up at him with admiration, impressed by how he had caught the sword without burning himself. "I can't even go near the water."

Puffing up his chest and planting one foot on the lip of the bowl, Finn struck what he hoped was a nonchalantly heroic pose. "Awww, you should come on a dungeon crawl with me and Jake sometime if you thought that was neat. I didn't even have to fight… woah!" As his foot skidded on the exact same patch of algae that his hand had slid on earlier, Finn quickly regained his balance and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Uhhhh, anyway, so I just put the sword in the water now?"

"Yup," the fire girl replied. "Leave it there until it cools."

"Okay!" Plunging the sword into the fountain, Finn was immediately enveloped in a cloud of dense steam as the hot steel hissed and spat like a furious cat while the water bubbled. After a few minutes, the smoky fog began to dissipate as the bubbles became smaller then faded altogether. Beneath the surface of the water the steel slowly darkened back to its usual gold, and Finn cautiously drew it out. The blade was still steaming gently, but when the boy cautiously tapped it, it was cool enough to touch. He could still see a darker ripple through its midsection where it had broken but it looked perfectly intact, and felt the same as he chopped at the air with it experimentally. "This is mondo mathematical!" he shouted down to Flame Princess. "You totally fixed it!"

"Well, I could probably do better if I knew more about metalworking," Flame Princess said modestly as Finn jumped back to the ground in a single leap, rolling as he hit the ground then springing back to his feet and twirling his sword expertly in both hands. "I'll go back to the library and read some more about it. Maybe my mom will let me try it out now that I'm older."

"I could help!" Finn offered enthusiastically. "Water doesn't hurt me so I could do all the wet stuff so you don't have to. Why don't we ask your mom?"

Flame Princess considered that for a moment, then nodded. It had been several hours now since she had left the castle to go flying so her mother had probably finished working on the fireworks, and she could always check with Peppermint Butler first. "Okay, let's go. Maybe your brother Jake is still with her. We could ask if you guys are going to be knights now."

"Oh yeah." Truthfully, Finn had almost forgotten about both becoming a knight and Jake. But being a knight would mean he would have more reasons to hang out in the Candy Kingdom as well as getting to be a hero. He couldn't see any possible downsides.


	23. Chapter 23

Pale blue light swept across the workbench and floor of Princess Bubblegum's lab as she used a customised spectroscope to make sure that she'd gotten rid of every last trace of gunpowder, magnesium or other pyrophoric substances. Under the icy glare of the scope, the chemicals she'd been using would glow a bright incandescent white; when she'd first switched it on the entire workbench had lit up like a light bulb. However, after a half hour of cleaning it looked like she'd gotten it all. Even the fireworks themselves didn't so much as gleam in the cyan light, the flammable substances within safely contained where they couldn't accidentally ignite.

Turning the scope on herself, Bubblegum could see faint sparkles in the fabric of her lab coat, which she shrugged off and placed in a sealed laundry hamper. Her skin and hair seemed fine, but she rinsed her hands anyway just to be sure before heading out of the lab and down to the main hall to find Peppermint Butler. The princess didn't have to go far; the mint man was already trotting up the grand staircase and stopped as he saw her.

"Ah, milady, I was just coming to ask if you were finished in the lab," he said with a short bow. "Your daughter is waiting outside and…" Peppermint's eyes narrowed as he leaned forward conspiratorially. "She's brought a boy with her. And she says he's a HUMAN boy…"

"Oh, that must be Finn," Bubblegum replied. "He's Joshua the Dog's adopted son. He and his brother Jake are living in that big tree in the Grass Lands. You know, where Marceline lived before…"

"Before she took up with that pathetic excuse for a wizard, yes, I remember." The mint man shot a cautious look towards the princess as he continued. "And… you're okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" There was a definite edge to Bubblegum's voice as she spoke. "If Marceline didn't want people moving in once she'd left, she should have left a sign or something to say it belonged to her. Besides," she added defensively. "It's not my job to keep the places she's abandoned in order."

Peppermint had some reservations about that. Marceline might have left the tree several centuries ago now, but to a thousand year-old immortal vampire time didn't have so much meaning. But if the princess wasn't bothered about it, neither was he. "Very well milady," he said with a polite nod. "Shall I have the fireworks moved to the tower?"

"Yes, thank you Pepbutt. They're safe enough, but there's no sense in taking chances. Just make sure the door's locked," she reminded him. "The last thing we need is Cinnamon Bun getting into them and dropping one down the stairs or something. They're stable enough, don't worry," she added as she saw the nervous look on the mint man's face. "I just don't want one of them getting broken open and spilling the contents inside, because if Feuer went anywhere near loose gunpowder…"

The face Peppermint Butler made at that suggestion was enough to convince the candy princess that he was taking the prospect seriously. "Yes, your Highness. I'll take them up myself," he assured her. "So, uh, this human boy… you know him?"

"I've met him before, yes." Bubblegum's eyes narrowed slightly at the question. "Get to the point, Pepbutt; what do you want to know?"

Since the princess was clearly on to him, the mint man decided to throw all subtlety aside. "Well, Flame Princess is still very young. Should she be consorting with boys at her age? Especially given the effect emotions have on her elemental matrix, are you sure it's safe? For both of them?"

"Peppermint, she's not even nine yet!" the princess responded indignantly. "Feuer is far too young for any sort of 'consorting'. Yes, she likes this boy, I know that. But she likes him as a friend, and that's important to her because she doesn't have any friends her own age. So if she likes spending time with Finn, I'm not going to stop her just because she might feel differently when she's older."

"Well, if you're sure milady," Peppermint's sigh was long-suffering, but Bubblegum chose to ignore the implied reproach and continued downstairs. She heard the mint man mutter something behind her but paid no attention. Although Peppermint did like to grumble at times and certainly wasn't shy about questioning her orders, she knew he'd still do as he was told. And that was really all that mattered in the end.

The main doors had been propped open to keep the grand hall cool while the castle staff continued with the preparations for the solstice festival, setting up trestle tables in two long rows against the walls. Although most of the event would take place outside, several consecutive years of heavy rain followed by random bird attacks and a couple of occasions where Ice King's interference had resulted in unseasonable blizzards had persuaded Bubblegum that there should be a contingency plan for moving things indoors. And after the bird attack she'd insisted that the food should be kept inside. Only the Morrow had objected; to the giant falcon an assault on the tables by a flock of smaller birds was just a moving buffet.

Bubblegum could see Flame Princess sitting on the grass outside, chatting animatedly to Finn. From what she could hear, it sounded like they were talking about dungeons, which was illustrated by a lot of Finn leaping to his feet to make dramatic gestures with his sword. Both children got to their feet as they saw her, the human boy immediately bowing so low that the pack he was wearing slid downwards to thud into the back of his head. He straightened up quickly, blushing as Flame Princess giggled.

"Hi Mom," the fire girl said cheerfully. "I fixed a sword! Can I learn metalworking now?" Slightly nonplussed by the question, Bubblegum didn't get a chance to answer before Flame Princess spoke again. "Oh, and I met Finn when he and Jake were coming to the Candy Kingdom. It's okay for him to visit because this isn't Opposite Kingdom, right?"

"Of course it's okay," Bubblegum replied, wondering how on Ooo the Opposite Kingdom had become involved in the matter. "Hello Finn, it's good to see you. Where's Jake?"

"Uhhh…" The human boy seemed surprised by the question, and exchanged a look of bewilderment with Flame Princes. "Jake said he was coming to see you, isn't he here?" Finn asked uncertainly. "He said he needed to talk to you about us being knights for the Candy Kingdom. That was a couple of hours ago now."

"Oh. Well, maybe Peppermint Butler told him I was busy. I'll ask him." The princess kept her voice casual, though dark suspicions were starting to form in her mind. She knew that there were certain places in her kingdom that were less than savoury and certainly less than sweet. Bubblegum generally left them alone though - not out of tolerance but because it was much easier to catch and prosecute actual wrongdoing if the culprits thought she wasn't aware of them. But Jake would have had contacts there in his thieving days and maybe that was really who he'd come here to see. True, he had served out his sentence and his father had been adamant that Jake would stay on the straight and narrow. However, Joshua was gone now and Bubblegum wasn't so sure that being responsible for his younger brother would be enough to stop the dog from backsliding.

"Can Finn be a knight?" Flame Princess asked enthusiastically, seemingly quite taken by the prospect. "Wait, can I be a knight too? It sounds totally math! Or can princesses not be knights?"

The candy princess wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, pushing her suspicions about Jake to the back of her mind for now. She remembered Warrior Princess of course, and more importantly she remembered what had happened to Warrior Princess… and the thought of her daughter in a situation like that sent a chill down her spine. Thankfully Finn answered for her.

"I don't think you can be a princess and a knight," the boy began, clearly having thought this over carefully. "Because 'princess' outranks 'knight' and knights work for princesses. But that doesn't mean you can't kick buns," he added swiftly.

"Oh, okay then." The fire girl seemed happy with that explanation as she turned back to her mother. "Finn can be a knight though, right?"

"I, uh, I'll think about it." The human boy looked disappointed by Bubblegum's noncommittal reply, but the candy princess didn't want to make any decisions until she'd found out exactly what was going on with Jake. The Candy Kingdom had never really had knights. Other kingdoms did, but since the Candy Kingdom had Banana Guards and the Gumball Guardians they had never really needed knights. But on the other hand, Finn had been raised by Joshua the Dog. "You're a bit young right now," Bubblegum continued, choosing her words delicately. "Why do you want to be a knight so badly?"

"So I can help people!" Finn's response was immediate and completely honest. Regardless of what Jake's intentions might have been it was obvious that the boy was completely serious about his plans. "Like my dad," he went on, an ominous tremble starting to creep into his tone. It quickly vanished as he glanced towards Flame Princess. "I always wanted to be like my dad when I grew up. And to help anyone in need no matter what their problem is."

"That's certainly very noble, Finn." Bubblegum was actually somewhat impressed by the aura of sheer altruism the human boy projected - it had been a long, long time since she'd met anyone like that. Even Joshua hadn't been quite the same; the dog had certainly been a hero but he'd always been more interested in the part that involved fighting. No, the last person she'd met who'd been like Finn had been Billy…

o.o.o.o.o

_The princess was still shaking as she slowly pushed herself up onto her knees; she could still hear the faint, rasping whispers of the Lich's voice echoing around her, rusted needle claws skittering at the edges of her mind but unable to enter thanks to the gem in her crown. A huge hand reached down to take hold of her upper arm, and Billy gently helped her back to her feet._

_"That should hold it, Princess," the blue-skinned giant stated calmly. It was hard to believe that just moments ago he'd been fighting for the lives of everyone in Ooo, and he seemed more concerned about Bubblegum than he did about the radiation burns and bleeding claw-wounds that marked his arms and chest. "Are you all right?"_

_"Yes, fine, thank you…" It took the candy princess a few moments to steel herself enough to look towards the centre of the chamber, flinching as she met the frozen gaze of the undead monster that was trapped there. The Lich was still clearly visible through the dark tree sap that had imprisoned it, but was no longer moving. The resin around it had solidified into amber and frozen him in place; the life spell Billy had cast with the aid of the giant tree had counteracted the Lich's aura of death and left him in stasis. "Are you sure it can't escape?"_

_"Only if some fool breaks this," Billy replied, tapping the surface of the amber prison. "He can still talk through it of course, but as long as nobody comes in here without a gem to protect them, there's nothing he can do." Walking over to where Nothung was still buried in the tree trunk, viscous resin still drooling slowly along the hilt, Billy pulled it free with a short grunt of effort. Immediately, the resin still leaking from the tree crystallised, sealing the wound in the wood._

_"Thank you," Bubblegum repeated, still too stunned to be able to express her gratitude in any more than those words. "You saved everyone. I… I don't know how we can ever repay you."_

_"Repay me?" Billy looked at the princess oddly, as if she'd spoken in some alien language. "There's no need for that Princess. I was just doing what had to be done. People shouldn't need to be paid for doing the right thing."_

o.o.o.o.o

Bubblegum blinked, shaking off the memory. Even now the thought of the Lich still made her shiver. "Ooo does need heroes," she said, half to herself. "So if you and Jake can prove that you're hero material, I'll make you both knights."

"Slammacow, that's radical!" Finn punched a fist into the air jubilantly. "We totally won't let you down, Princess! What do you need us to do; are there monsters you want us to fight or dungeons you want us to clear or magic junk you need us to collect?"

"Well, there's nothing threatening the Candy Kingdom right now," Bubblegum replied, smiling at the boy's enthusiasm. "But I'm sure there are plenty of other people you can help just now. I know that Blacksmith Town has been having a lot of trouble with their mine - all the iron ore that's been coming out seems to be tainted. They think there might be a nest of rust monsters in there or something. Maybe you and Jake could go check it out?"

Finn's eyes lit up like the fireworks for tomorrow's festival at the suggestion. "That sounds like a quest!" The boy was hopping from one foot to the other, barely able to contain his excitement. It seemed to be infectious; beside him Flame Princess unconsciously began to hover as she giggled at his reaction. "We'll go investigate right now!"

Dulling slightly, Flame Princess dropped back to the ground. "You're not going to stay for the festival tomorrow?" she asked, looking disappointed.

"Uhhhhh…" Finn was torn; on the one hand the boy was longing to get started on his first proper quest, especially since it was a quest from a princess. But on the other hand was the prospect of spending more time with the fire girl. Flame Princess wasn't the only one who had no friends of her own age. "Well, I guess it could wait until after the festival," he said, making up his mind. "And I need to go find Jake anyway."

"That's a good idea," Bubblegum began, remembering her earlier suspicions about Jake with some unease. She was about to go on when Flame Princess interrupted her.

"Hey, if it's after the festival, then I could go too!" the fire girl said brightly. "It sounds like fun, and I could learn metalworking in Blacksmith Town."

Although the candy princess' expression didn't change, she groaned inwardly. Maybe Finn was going to inadvertently cause more problems than she'd thought.


	24. Chapter 24

Taking a deep breath, Jake gathered his resolve. The dog was hiding behind a large tree in the castle gardens, occasionally sneaking a look around its trunk to check on his target. He hadn't done anything like this for years - not since he'd been arrested - and couldn't quite shake off the feeling that he'd forgotten how.

"No way, man..." he muttered to himself. "You were a total master at this, remember?" As if in response, his left hand formed itself into a face that looked unsettlingly like his mother. "But Jake," he made it say, unconsciously mimicking his mother's voice. "What if Finn finds out?" The dog grimaced uneasily at the thought, but when he spoke his tone was defiant. "Well Finn's older now and he'll have to learn eventually," Jake whispered defensively, only just remembering to keep his voice down. "Besides, it's not like I'm asking him to help."

The one-sided conversation was cut short as Jake heard a soft whoosh of air and looked around the tree to see his target moving onwards. And this time when she stopped there were no convenient trees nearby. Cursing quietly, the dog shrank down then elongated his body and sprouted extra legs until he looked like a furry centipede. In this new form, Jake scuttled silently across the lawn, diving into a shrub and coiling his way along its branches until he could see his target through the leaves.

"Come on Jay - I mean Jake," he hissed reprovingly. "You can do this. Just act natural... Yikes!" Quickly pulling his head back into the foliage as the person he was following looked around, he continued trying to goad himself into action. "You get out there and do this," Jake growled softly. "You're not going to get in trouble this time." Launching himself out of the bush, the dog returned to his normal form and casually sauntered forwards as if he'd been enjoying a stroll through the gardens, hoping to get his target's attention.

Unfortunately for Jake, Lady Rainicorn was far more interested in the colours she was using to decorate the castle. The beams of light from her horn had turned the normally cream stonework into a rich sapphire blue, which faded into the pinks, reds and gold of a summer sunset. She didn't even notice the dog as he walked past, or as he came back in the opposite direction, or as he walked past again. Eventually, Jake decided to give up the casual approach as it was getting him nowhere and cleared his throat instead.

"Uhhh... Hey," the dog greeted Lady as he walked over to her with carefully measured nonchalance. "I, uh, like your..." He wasn't quite sure what to call it, since it wasn't like any kind of painting he'd ever seen. "I like the colours," he said eventually and lamely. The rainicorn had turned her head towards him at the sound of his voice, and as he got closer her eyes widened slightly in recognition. Jake felt his legs turn extra rubbery as she smiled at him, then she spoke.

He had absolutely no idea what she was saying.

"Ah crud, I don't speak Korean!" Jake groaned in frustration. Giggling, Lady said something equally incomprehensible as she regarded him with her head tilted to one side. She seemed to be sizing him up; going by her expression Jake would have rated his chances as 'favourable'. But not being able to understand her was a definite drawback. "Soooo... You understand me, right?" he asked hopefully.

The rainicorn nodded in response, still looking at him with that same appraising gaze that made him both nervous and cocky all at once. It also tied his stomach into several complicated knots. "Well, uh, at least that's something," Jake said with a chuckle that was half relieved and half awkward. Clearing his throat, he mentally seized his confidence by the throat, shook it hard, and thrust it to the fore. Shifting into what he thought was a more debonair pose he gave her his best smouldering look. "Girl, you smell good. Did you take a bath in rainbows and cupcakes?"

Lady raised a sceptical eyebrow at the query, saying something in Korean and gesturing at herself emphatically. Jake still didn't understand her, but her expression now clearly stated 'are you dense?' He coughed again, looking away in embarrassment.

"Uhhhhh, I'm guessing that was you pointing out that since you're a rainicorn, of course you smell like rainbows," Jake said, scratching at one ear. "But, uh, you still smell good?" he offered lamely. The rainicorn's expression softened as she chuckled then murmured something else as she looked at him coyly. "Okay, that sounded more positive..." Jake said hesitantly. "So I'm gonna say... yes?" To the dog's chagrin, Lady's reaction was to collapse to the grass in helpless laughter, her long body almost tying itself in knots as she writhed in amusement. "Oh." Jake wasn't sure what else to say now. "I really need to get a translator or something..."

"Jake!" Hearing Finn's voice behind him, Jake turned to see the boy running towards him with Flame Princess flying in his wake, his face alight with jubilation. "Where have you been? We totally got a quest from Princess Bubblegum, dude!" Skidding to a halt as he noticed Lady Rainicorn, who was still laughing, he looked at his brother curiously. "Did you tell her that joke about the ogre and the bathtub or something?"

Slowly getting back to her feet - still chuckling - Lady shook her head and explained. As she was still speaking Korean, neither Finn nor Jake knew what she was saying. But Flame Princess did and quickly interpreted for them.

"Lady says that she was laughing because she asked Jake if he was just trying to smooth-talk her into his bed," the fire girl translated. "And he said yes and that cracked her up. But then she said at least you were honest."

Jake was suddenly very glad that his fur concealed his embarrassed blush as he looked at the rainicorn awkwardly. Lady was still smiling though, genuinely amused by the miscommunication. "Uhhhh... is it too late to say no?" the dog asked hopefully. The rainicorn giggled and was about to reply when Finn spoke first.

"Why would you even want to go to bed at three in the afternoon?" The human looked towards Flame Princess with bewilderment, but the girl only shrugged in equal bemusement. The look that was exchanged between Jake and Lady however was one of sudden mortification. The rainicorn quickly muttered something in rapid Korean and shot into the sky, leaving Jake alone with the two children who were still waiting for an answer.

"Lady said she had to go finish colouring the castle," Flame Princess told him helpfully. "But she said you could explain."

There was a long silence as Finn and Flame Princess looked at the dog expectantly; Jake was starting to doubt whether his fur would be enough to conceal the bright shade of red he'd turned beneath it. With an extremely nervous laugh, he tried to brush the whole thing off. "Ah, it's just boring adult stuff," he said dismissively, hoping that the two kids would buy that vague description. "What was that about a quest?" Jake added, adding some classic deflection into the mix.

Luckily for the dog, mentioning the quest distracted his brother immediately. "Oh, Princess Bubblegum asked if we could go investigate the mine in Blacksmith Town. She thinks that there's rust monsters down there!" Finn was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. "So we need to go clear them out. And she says that if we can prove that we're heroes, she'll make us knights. So we need to totally rock at this quest."

"Okay, you wanna set off now then?" Jake asked, infinitely thankful that the awkward moment seemed to have been successfully glossed over and forgotten. "Might be better to go in the morning, Blacksmith Town is a ways away in the mountains… and don't you want to stay for the festival tomorrow?" The dog quickly glanced towards Flame Princess. "You did say that Lady Rainicorn goes as well, right?"

"Yeah, she plays viola," the fire girl replied. "She's really good."

"She plays viola?!" Jake's voice had risen several octaves and came out as a breathless, thrilled squeak. "Oh my Glob, I play viola! I gotta go practice! Finn, I'll see you back at the tree fort buddy. You can make your own way back, right? Right." Before the human boy could respond, Jake had stretched out both legs until he was towering high above them and sprinted off in the rough direction of the Grass Lands: vaulting the garden fence, buildings and even the city walls with ease.

Finn and Flame Princess could only stare at the path Jake had taken for a few seconds, with identical looks of blank surprise. Then as they looked at each other, Finn shrugged helplessly. "Uhm, I guess he doesn't want to see your mom after all," the boy suggested hesitantly. "He must think that Lady Rainicorn is going to be better at viola than him or something."

"Does it really matter?" Flame Princess queried, wondering why that was so important. "It's not a contest or anything."

"Dunno," Finn waved a hand dismissively. "Maybe he's just acting weird, he does that sometimes. Like he found me reading this 'Mind Games' book he had and totally flipped out saying it wasn't for kids. Don't know why, it wasn't about games at all, it was about talking to girls."

Flame Princess covered her mouth as she giggled at the thought. "Why the math would you need a book to talk to girls?" she asked, still snickering. "You're talking to me right now!"

"I know, right?" Finn seemed equally amused by the idea. "Talking to girls is just like talking to your bro except you're girl bros. I don't remember what those are called," Finn admitted. "But still, it's not hard. Jake said I'd understand when I get older so maybe it's like going to bed in the afternoon. Though I thought only grandmas and grandpas did that."

"Grownups can be really weird sometimes," Flame Princess said sympathetically. "Like Lumpy Space Princess; she talks about all this weird stuff with my mom and sometimes my mom gets all annoyed and tells her not to talk about it in front of me. But I don't even know what she's talking about most of the time. And my mom always wears the same shirt to bed and one time I saw her smelling it and when I asked why she got all red and said it was grown up stuff. I thought it maybe just needed washed since she sleeps in it all the time."

Finn chuckled as well, shaking his head. "I totally get that. Sometimes I wonder if I'll be weird too when I grow up, but I don't know why I would. I mean, it's not like you forget how to talk to girls, is it?"

"Well if you forget to talk to girls, maybe I'll forget how to talk to boys," the fire girl giggled. "And wear the same shirt to bed every night for some reason."

The two children's laughter slowly faded into silence, but this time it was bashful rather than uncomfortable. "So, uhm… you said you made glass stuff?" Finn asked eventually. "Can I see? It sounds pretty cool."

Flattered by the human's interest - and also sensing another opportunity to show off - Flame Princess nodded enthusiastically. "Sure, follow me," she replied, and ran into the castle with Finn following close behind her.


	25. Chapter 25

Even though there was less than an hour till midnight, the summer sky still didn't seem completely dark. The sun had only set a couple of hours earlier and the stars were shining brightly above the Candy Kingdom; the moon hanging low in the sky and glowing like burnished gold instead of its usual polished silver. Flame Princess was once again perched on the parapets of the tallest tower, idly swinging her legs over the side with the kind of nonchalance that only someone with the power of flight could possess.

Behind her the trapdoor that opened out onto the tower lay open, and grunts of effort were echoing through it as Finn hauled himself up the ladder. Flame Princess didn't move from where she was sitting as the human boy emerged from the shaft leading down into the castle, his upper body slumping across the flagstones as he panted with effort.

"Are you okay?" Although the fire girl sounded concerned she made no attempt to assist Finn as he dragged himself the rest of the way through the trapdoor, then fell face-first against the floor once more. The reason for her inaction soon became obvious - Finn had a large bundle of fireworks strapped to his back instead of his pack, which had been left at the base of the parapet Flame Princess was sitting on. Getting too close to the boy would have been a really bad idea for both of them at present. "You didn't need to bring them all at once. Why didn't you let the Banana Guards help like Pepbutt said?"

Finn tried to laugh it off, but only managed a wheezing chuckle. "Nah... s'fine..." he managed to gasp out, uncomfortably aware of how damp his shirt had become beneath the heavy weight of the fireworks on his back. He was just glad that the ropes holding them in place hadn't slipped. Though, on reflection, maybe making a couple of journeys with them instead of taking them in one go would have been a better idea. Shrugging off the jury-rigged rope straps, Finn pushed the huge bundle to one side and rolled onto his back gratefully. "Told you I didn't need help." Truthfully he'd just wanted to impress the fire girl, and his aching back and shoulders were a small price to pay. "Gimme a minute and I'll get them set up," he added breathlessly.

"We've got time," Flame Princess replied, glancing towards the position of the moon. "The fireworks don't get lit until midnight. As long as they're ready in the next half hour it'll be fine. Are you sure you don't want me to get Pepbutt to help?" she asked, looking concerned as Finn still hadn't moved from where he lay. "I can see him from here; I could just fly down and grab him. He hates it when I do that, but it's pretty funny."

"It's okay, all I have to do is put them in the frames, right? Easy." Finn propped himself up on his elbows as he got his breath back, trying to look casual instead of hot and sweaty. "You know where they go, right? You just can't touch them in case they go off."

The fire girl nodded, pointing at a series of heavy wooden boxes that had been arranged on the flat roof of the tower. "The big flat ones are called cakes, they go inside those boxes. The cylinders are called candles, and they go in those racks." Flame Princess indicated a row of wooden racks which had been weighed down with sandbags. "The rockets go in racks too; you can tell the difference because the candles don't fit in the ones for the rockets."

Sitting up, Finn pulled the bundle of fireworks over to himself and began to sort through them. It was easy enough to tell the fireworks apart; the rockets were mounted on sticks, the candles were long cylinders and the cakes were thick discs that weighed the most. "Do they need to be in a specific order?" he asked, setting each type out in separate piles.

"No, it doesn't matter," the fire girl said confidently. "As long as I can see the label I know which ones to light first. When they go off it should be like a rainbow, only with fire."

"That sounds totally rad," Finn breathed softly. "I've never seen fireworks before, this is gonna be awesome!" Getting to his feet, the human boy lifted an armful of rockets and carried them over to one of the racks, carefully sliding them into place. "Aren't they awful close together?" His voice was edged with doubt as he shot a concerned look towards the young elemental. "Or are they supposed to all be lit at once?"

"I can still light them one at a time, watch!" Turning to face out over the courtyard, Flame Princess drew one arm back and concentrated, then snapped it forwards. Bright, white hot sparks leapt from the tips of her fingers, fanning out into the air then fizzling out as they slowly drifted downwards. "Sparks like that are easy," she added over her shoulder, not without a touch of boastfulness. "Mom got me to practice with candles until I got the hang of lighting them from a distance."

"Your mom must know a lot about fire people," Finn commented as he gingerly lifted one of the firework cakes and carried it over to a waiting box. "I didn't know fire people could light things without burning the butts off them."

The fire girl shrugged, turning back to watch the human boy. "Maybe they can't. Mom said it's mostly physics and thermodynamics and a good dose of chemistry. Maybe they don't learn that in the Fire Kingdom. Everything I read about that place says there's fire and lava everywhere so they don't need to worry about setting things on fire. But I do because I live here. I don't want to hurt anyone."

Putting the last of the fireworks into place, Finn looked up at Flame Princess curiously. "Do you ever think about going back to the Fire Kingdom so you don't have to worry about that?" Although it was an innocent enough question, the human had ulterior motives in asking it. He knew that the Fire Kingdom wasn't somewhere he could just walk into like the Candy Kingdom, unless he wanted to find out what fried bacon felt like.

"Of course not, this is my home!" Flame Princess' answer was firm and immediate. "I never want to go to the Fire Kingdom; I don't care if I wouldn't have to worry about burning things. Everything I care about is here."

"I understand," Finn replied, hopping up onto the parapet next to the one Flame Princess was sitting on. "I don't even know where humans come from, or if there's any others. But if there were, I'd still want to stay in the Grasslands with Jake 'cuz he's my bro."

Flame Princess didn't reply, but smiled shyly instead. Maybe it wasn't so weird to be the only fire person in the Candy Kingdom if Finn was the only human in Ooo. The two children sat in companionable silence for a few minutes longer, Finn looking out at the horizon while Flame Princess gazed up at the stars. Then the sound of viola music made them both look downwards to the people below.

"That sounds like two people playing," Flame Princess commented, looking around for the source. "Are Lady and Jake playing together?"

Finn snorted back a laugh as he caught sight of his brother, shaking his head. "Nope, it looks like Jake's just showing off..."

o.o.o.o.o

It had seemed like such a good idea to begin with. Borrow Lady Rainicorn's viola, then sprout a pair of extra arms to play two at once. But much to Jake's increasing discomfort, he was finding it hard to work out which arm was playing which viola. And the faster he played, the less he was sure that he'd be able to stop without snapping some strings. At least he couldn't snap any bones.

The dog was uncomfortably aware of Lady Rainicorn's gaze. But instead of looking awed and impressed as Jake had hoped, she was only showing the faintest trace of interest as she watched him coolly. And that only made him play faster, spinning both bows with a flourish that nearly ended with him getting one in the eye.

"Uhhh… Jake?" Shelby's voice made the dog start in surprise with a jarring screech of strings. The worm's head was barely visible, poking only a fraction of an inch out of the f-hole of Jake's viola and looking up at the vibrating strings with concern. "Might wanna take it easy there buddy, you're gonna be snapping those strings if you keep playing like this…"

"I can't stop now," Jake hissed between his teeth, glancing nervously towards the rainicorn. Lady was sitting on the grass a measured distance away, her body coiled neatly around herself, head propped on her forelegs. "Not while she's watching!"

Following Jake's gaze, Shelby sighed. "Oh, I get it. You've gotta stop some time you know. Wouldn't it be better to do that before you break something?" The dog didn't reply, but kept playing with grim determination. Sighing, Shelby sank back into the instrument, his voice muffled. "Guess I'll just take cover then…"

Truth be told, Lady Rainicorn was impressed by Jake's skills with the viola even before he started playing two of them simultaneously. She just knew better than to show it. It was adorable the way the dog kept glancing at her as if looking for approval, and then quickly returning his attention to the instruments. Lady had been sceptical when he'd asked to borrow her viola, expecting that it whatever Jake was planning would end quickly and discordantly. Instead, he was managing to play two different, complementary pieces of music on the two instruments; the sudden shriek that the dog had just made on one of them had only been a momentary aberration. And he was playing very, very fast… clearly the extra hands where just as deft as the original pair. Yes, she was most definitely impressed. Maybe she'd even tell him that when he was done.

_[Well, I can certainly see why he was such an accomplished pickpocket,]_ Lady commented, but got no response from Princess Bubblegum. Turning her head towards where the princess had been sitting, Lady saw that she had vanished. The candy princess had been on edge after Peppermint Butler had told her Finn was going to take the fireworks up to the tower himself, so it wasn't surprising if she'd gone to check on them. What was surprising was that Lady hadn't even noticed her stand up… maybe she'd been more captivated by Jake's musical skills than she'd realised.

Looking back over to the dog with a smile, Lady couldn't help chuckling as he turned bright red and immediately broke two strings on one of the violas. It had been bound to happen eventually.

o.o.o.o.o

Standing on the ladder just below the open trapdoor, Princess Bubblegum slowly and cautiously raised her head to look over the lip of the tower's flat roof. Both Flame Princess and Finn had their backs to her, hanging over the parapets they were sitting on to watch what was going on below. Although Bubblegum knew that her daughter was in no danger despite her precarious position, Finn was another matter entirely. If she startled them, there was a very good chance that the human boy would plummet over the edge of the battlements.

The candy princess had snuck up to the roof to make sure nothing untoward had happened. Despite her earlier assurance to Peppermint Butler that Flame Princess was too young to be interested in boys, she couldn't help feeling vaguely uneasy the more she thought about it. Seeing the looks that Lady Rainicorn had been shooting towards Jake had only made that feeling worse. But all the two children were doing was talking; they weren't even sitting on the same parapet.

Silently sliding back down the ladder, Bubblegum clambered up it once more, this time making plenty of noise so that Flame Princess and Finn would hear her coming. When she reached the top, both of them had turned towards her, though Finn was still sitting worryingly close to the edge.

"Hi Mom," Flame Princess said cheerfully. "Everything's all set up, don't worry."

"So I see," Bubblegum replied as she climbed out onto the roof. She'd been half expecting to find that some of the fireworks had been broken and the contents scattered across the roof like highly flammable confetti - which was exactly what had happened the time she'd let Cinnamon Bun set them up. Luckily that had been before she'd adopted Flame Princess, but even without the fire girl around to accidentally ignite the mess Cinnamon Bun had still ended up on fire.

But this time everything was fine. It looked like Finn had set the fireworks up without any problems. Bubblegum hadn't been particularly happy with Peppermint Butler for leaving the human boy to deal with them himself - according to the mint man, Finn had insisted on it - but it seemed that the candy princess' fears had been unfounded. "Thanks for your help, Finn," Bubblegum added with a warm smile that made the boy blush and shift position bashfully. "Are you ready Feuer?"

"Yes!" Springing into the air and glowing brightly in excitement, Flame Princess rose higher until she had clear shots at all of the fireworks. Princess Bubblegum retreated to a safe distance, sitting on one of the parapets near Finn as the young elemental shot a few practice sparks into the air. The fireworks didn't pose much danger to Flame Princess as long as she kept out of the way of the rockets; the pyrotechnics would only make her burn brighter if they hit her.

There were several moments of breathless silence on the rooftop, the faint sounds of excited chattering drifting up from the people far below. Then the castle clock began to chime as it struck midnight, and Flame Princess immediately sent a fan of sparks towards the first rack of rockets, lighting them all simultaneously. The girl laughed delightedly as the fireworks launched high into the sky in streaks of white and gold flame, and immediately turned to the next one.

For the next fifteen minutes, the sky above the Candy Kingdom burned bright as day - a rainbow of colours washing over the castle and the people below as the fireworks exploded in starbursts and sprays overhead. Flame Princess had timed it perfectly, igniting each firework in sequence so that there were no gaps or pauses; just a seamless display of light and colour. She didn't realise that she was rising higher into the air until she was close enough to feel the trailing sparks and flames on her skin. To the fire girl it felt like gentle rainfall would have to anyone else, only instead of getting wet her skin lit up briefly with patches of colour as traces of the powders within the fireworks drifted over her.

Finn watched the entire spectacle with his mouth hanging open in amazement. He had never seen anything like this, and was hard pressed splitting his attention between the fiery chrysanthemums and willows being traced across the sky in bright colours, and the laughing elemental who was gazing up at the pyrotechnics with arms outspread as if she wanted to hug them.

As the last sparks faded, Flame Princess drifted back over to her mother and Finn, burning with a faint purple and green glow that was slowly fading. "Was that okay?" she asked the candy princess, dropping back to the roof as she cooled.

"That was perfect, Feuer, well done." Bubblegum replied, getting back to her feet. "I'd better go check on things downstairs, and you should be getting to bed. Both of you."

"Okay mom, I will." But Flame Princess showed no sign of following as Bubblegum disappeared into the trapdoor. Instead she hopped back up onto the ramparts next to Finn. "So… did you like the fireworks?" she asked, twisting a length of flaming hair around one finger.

"Those were totally radical!" The words exploded out of the human boy in an excited rush. "Especially the ones that exploded into smaller parts that also exploded! It was like magic or something."

The fire girl giggled at that, shaking her head. "It's not magic silly; the fire reacts with the gunpowder and chemicals in the fireworks. That's what makes them explode and burn all different colours, the ones that explode into smaller ones are just packed differently so that the first detonation bursts the shell and splits the compartments they're in, then…" Her voice trailed off awkwardly at the bewildered look on Finn's face. "Uhm… I guess you don't really need to know how they work, as long as you liked them."

"No, I totally do want to know how they work," Finn protested quickly, though he'd had trouble following exactly what Flame Princess was talking about. Explaining it seemed to make her happy though. "How do you make them go different colours like that instead of just… fire colour? I've seen blue fire, but I didn't know it came in green and red too."

"That's just a chemical reaction," the young elemental said brightly. "You can make flames burn different colours with different chemicals. Strontium makes them really red, barium is for green. Copper makes blue, and if you mix it with strontium you get an awesome purple colour. Caesium makes a really pretty sky blue, but my mom says that's too dangerous to use…"

It was almost as if the fire girl was speaking a different language, but Finn could at least appreciate that this was something that she was interested in. So he just nodded whenever it felt appropriate, and hoped there wouldn't be questions later.


	26. Chapter 26

"But Mom..." Flame Princess protested, falling silent when her mother raised a hand to interrupt her.

"I said no, Feuer," Princess Bubblegum stated firmly. "You're too young, it could be dangerous. Especially since it's underground." For the past fifteen minutes, the young elemental had been trying to persuade Bubblegum to let her go with Finn and Jake to investigate the mine in Blacksmith Town. Unfortunately for Flame Princess, her mother's position regarding that prospect hadn't softened in the slightest. Not that it stopped her from arguing.

"How does being underground make a difference?" Flame Princess demanded. "The entire Fire Kingdom is underground!" Since persuasion clearly wouldn't work, the fire girl resorted to logic instead. After all, her mother was far more likely to listen to reason over pleading.

"The Fire Kingdom is in volcanic caverns," the candy princess corrected. "It's all hard rock and lava and the heat currents effectively ventilate the chambers. The Blacksmith Town iron mine is dug into the side of a hill, partly through loose earth, and there could be coal seams. If there was a cave in you could be suffocated. You'd burn through the available oxygen before you could be dug out. Or you might hit a carbon dioxide or blackdamp pocket; those could snuff you out without warning. Or if there's firedamp or methane or any other explosive gases down there, you'd automatically ignite them. And that is why you can't go," the candy princess finished decisively, folding her arms.

The look she got from her daughter in response wasn't rebellious, it was hurt. "But I thought you said I'd gotten really good at controlling my flames," Flame Princess said quietly, her hair dimming as she lowered her head. "I didn't think I was still dangerous like that..."

With a sharp gasp that sounded almost pained, Bubblegum reached forwards to cup the young elemental's face in her unprotected hands, raising it gently. Although Flame Princess' skin felt extremely hot, it didn't scorch or burn, even though the fire girl was upset. "It's not that Feuer, it's like the fireworks. If you broke into a gas pocket you'd ignite it automatically. It wouldn't be your fault."

Flame Princess' eyes were still downcast, mostly because her apparent dejection was completely feigned. The young princess knew that her mother didn't think she was dangerous, but she also knew that Bubblegum had always taken great care to ensure that Flame Princess believed that as well. She felt a little guilty about manipulating her mother's emotions like that, but it certainly seemed to be effective. "Wouldn't they know if there were explosive gases down there? The lanterns would have set them off, right?"

"Well, yes..." Bubblegum replied uncertainly. "But if you're going to be exploring down there and started digging you could still hit one."

"But why would we be digging?" the fire girl asked, sensing that her mother's argument was weakening. "We're supposed to be looking for what's making the iron go bad, not making more tunnels."

"Yes, but it could still be dangerous." The candy princess still couldn't shake off the mental image of her daughter being smothered beneath a ton of damp soil. "I'm sorry Feuer, but you're too young."

"I'm the same age as Finn!" Flame Princess countered indignantly. "Or is it okay for him to go because he's a boy?"

"Of course not, that's ridiculous!" Bubblegum scoffed at the very thought. "That doesn't matter at all. It's just that Finn has more experience with this sort of thing. Jake told me that the two of them have explored lots of dungeons."

"Then how am I supposed to get experience if you won't let me go?" There was a definite whine in the fire girl's voice now, though she was doing her best to keep her tone reasonable. "Besides, it's not even a dungeon, it's a mine. And it's not even an abandoned mine. Isn't that like entry level adventuring?"

Bubblegum frowned in response, bewildered by the unfamiliar terminology. "Entry level adventuring? What does that even mean? Did Finn tell you that?"

"No, Jake did," Flame Princess replied. "And he said that means it's low level and suitable for starting adventurers," she added helpfully. "I wasn't sure what that meant, but he said that it would be easy and any monsters would only have a couple of hit dice."

The candy princess had no idea what that meant either, which was increasingly discomfiting for someone of her intelligence. "Well... I'll think about it then," she said hesitantly. She still had absolutely no intention of letting the fire girl wander around a mine of dubious construction, but at least saying she'd consider it would buy her some time. Hopefully enough for her to speak to Finn and Jake first to impress on them that they were not to allow Flame Princess to accompany them. She felt a small twinge of guilt as the young elemental literally brightened, unconsciously rising a couple of inches from the ground.

"Thanks mom," Flame Princess' hopeful tone only made Bubblegum feel worse. "I think Finn and Jake want to leave soon though…"

"I'll sleep on it then," Bubblegum replied, hoping that the girl wouldn't argue. It was nearly midday now, which would give her plenty of time to fly over to the tree fort on the Morrow and speak to Finn and Jake first. "I'll let you know in the morning." To her relief, the fire girl nodded obediently. "Anyway, I'd better go… look at the records we have for Blacksmith Town," Bubblegum lied. "To see if they've had any mine collapses or anything. Yeah."

"Okay, that makes sense." Although Flame Princess' voice sounded casual, her expression changed the moment the door closed behind the candy princess. Waiting until the sound of her mother's footsteps had receded along the corridor, the young elemental darted over to the open window and whistled softly. A few seconds later Jake emerged from one of the shrubs at the base of the castle wall with Finn perched on his shoulders, stretching his legs upwards until he and his brother were level with the fire girl.

"What did your mom say?" Finn asked excitedly. "Can you come with?" His grin faded slightly as Flame Princess grimaced in response.

"Well, at first she said no," the young elemental grumbled, looking exasperated. "Because she thinks being underground is super dangerous for some reason, even though I was born there. It's like she thinks the mine is really delicate or something and it'll collapse on me if I so much as sneeze but that's total junk. If it was that structurally unsound then it would have caved in the first time someone used a pickaxe or dynamite, but I guess that would just be silly since it's not like they need those to mine the ore or anything..."

"Wait, they don't?" Finn looked bewildered by the fire girl's rant. "How would they dig it out then?"

Flame Princess shook her head with an irritated sigh. "Never mind, I was being sarcastic. And my mom did say she'd think about it in the end, but then she left. So she probably means 'stall for time'. It's so not fair!"

"Hey, you've got a loophole," Jake pointed out with a sly smirk. 'I'll think about it' isn't a no, is it?"

"No..." Flame Princess began hesitantly. She knew full well that it had really meant no, but Jake did have a point there. And the thought of actively defying her mother was intimidating, yet strangely exhilarating at the same time.

"You could always say that you thought she'd say yes after she thought about it," Finn suggested. "For all those reasons you said before. And you can still come with us to Blacksmith Town and just not go into the mine; your mom would be okay with that, right?"

"That's right!" the fire girl exclaimed, though not without a twinge of guilt as she knew that she had no intention of waiting on the surface while Finn and Jake explored the mine. Flame Princess told herself that she could always just say that she hadn't gone into the mine, but somehow the prospect of lying to her mother made her even more uncomfortable than disobeying her. Shaking those disconcerting feelings away, she launched herself out of the window to hover beside Finn and Jake before she lost her resolve. "Let's go then, I've never been on an adventure before."

"It's gonna be mathematical!" Finn said confidently. "Let's go, Jake, it's adventure time!" Without further ado, and without shrinking his legs down either, the dog turned and started running for the hills to the south with Finn on his shoulders and Flame Princess flying beside them.

o.o.o.o.o

It didn't take long for the three adventurers to reach Blacksmith Town; Jake's elongated legs and Flame Princess' flight cut the journey time to a fraction of what it would have been on foot. The settlement was located in a valley in the hills to the east of the Candy Kingdom, near the Mountains of Mystery and close to Marauder Village. Normally smoke would have been rising from the furnaces which smelted the ore from the mine into iron, but it looked like all but one of them had been extinguished. And not for want of fuel - there were plentiful supplies of coal and wood stacked under a metal awning to protect them from rain.

Seeing that there was a crowd gathered around the single active furnace, Jake headed straight for it, shrinking down to his normal size as Finn jumped off his back and Flame Princess landed beside them. It looked like the inhabitants of Blacksmith Town were in the middle of a heated debate; they didn't notice the new arrivals at all.

"I'm telling you we need to fill the whole mine with kerosene and set it on fire!" one of the townsmen bellowed. He looked as if he was at least half ogre, a whole ten feet tall and two thirds as wide. "Burn the problem out!"

"And what do we do if the flames reach a coal seam?" a much smaller figure retorted. The speaker wasn't much taller than Finn and had the large nose of a gnome, one arm ending in a metal-capped stump to which a pickaxe head had been attached. Both pickaxe and stump were heavily corroded with rust. "I hate those little beasts just as much as you Jorgen, but if we start a coal seam fire we might as well just start digging a new mine."

"That's what I've been saying from the start," another gnomish person cut in, this one a woman who reminded Flame Princess of Muscle Princess, only much shorter. "The problem's just getting worse; we might as well cut our losses and start a new mine."

"And what if they tunnel into that one too?" the ogre, Jorgen, growled. "We might as well just pack up the entire town and move to another valley." From the murmur which rippled through the crowd at those words, it was clear that although that prospect was not one they liked, it was one that was being considered.

There was a movement over by the furnace, and immediately all the townsfolk fell silent. They still didn't seem to have noticed Finn, Jake or Flame Princess; instead they all turned towards the furnace as the crowd parted to allow a blue-skinned man through. He looked like a Marauder, but was completely bald and beardless and wearing a blacksmith's apron and thick dragonhide gloves. Another worried murmur rippled through the mob as they saw what he was holding – a small metal ingot that was still glowing a dull red. Finn shrugged as Flame Princess looked at him questioningly, he had no idea what the fuss was over a bit of metal. But the ogre quickly answered that for him.

"A hundredweight of ore, and that's all the iron you got out of it?" Jorgen's voice was shocked as well as angry as he stared at the metal. "That can't even be a pound!"

"And I don't even know if it's any good," the blue man replied. "That's all that was left once I'd smelted out the impurities, and I still don't think it was enough. Furnace can only be made to burn so hot you know. Will you do the honours, Forgemaster?"

With a growling sigh, Jorgen pulled a pair of long-handled tongs from his belt and picked up the glowing ingot with them. "I hope this does better than the last batch," he muttered, then turned around and finally noticed the newcomers. "And who the Glob are you lot?" he asked roughly. "If you're here for iron, you'll have to wait. If you're here for metalwork, see above. But if you," Jorgen looked straight at Flame Princess as he continued, "are wanting to buy coal then you might be in luck depending on how this batch goes."

"Uhhhhh..." Finn didn't get the chance to explain as Jorgen moved past them, heading for one of the forges. The townspeople followed, sweeping Finn and Jake with them as Flame Princess rose into the air to avoid burning anyone. None of the crowd had seemed bothered by her heat, but she didn't want to get caught in the press in case she ended up burning Finn or Jake.

As Jorgen reached the forge, he immediately thrust the small bar of iron into the coals of the hearth and tugged hard on the rope that worked the bellows. Flame roared up around the metal ingot as the forge blazed bright buttercup yellow, sending out waves of oppressive heat that made both Finn and Jake shrink back, though again the townsfolk seemed indifferent.

Once the iron had heated sufficiently, Jorgen lifted the glowing bar with the tongs and carried it over to a large anvil. Finn noticed that there were fragments of glassy-looking metal scattered around it and frowned, then heard the crowd hold its collective breath as Jorgen laid the smoking ingot on the iron. Holding it firmly in place with the tongs in one hand, Jorgen lifted a heavy hammer with the other. Taking a couple of practice swings, the ogre steadied his aim and brought the hammer down hard on the hot metal. It immediately exploded into glowing fragments.

Jake had immediately stretched himself around Finn to protect him, yelping as a shard of searing metal grazed his ear. The townsfolk had also scattered back to avoid the metal fragments as Jorgen threw the hammer down in disgust. "That does it," the big man fumed. "Coal fires be damned, I'm getting the kerosene." The crowd slowly dispersed as Jorgen stormed off, some glancing at the three adventurers curiously but more preoccupied with their worries. As Jake unwrapped himself from his brother, the Marauder-looking man approached them looking somewhat apologetic.

"Sorry about Jorgen, he's just on edge. We all are. But if you're here looking for iron then I'm afraid we don't have any that's worth your time." The man sighed, and then continued. "Name's Broo, I'm the furnace keeper here."

"I'm Finn, this is my brother Jake," Finn replied. If Broo was surprised that the boy's brother was a dog, he didn't show it. "We heard you were having trouble with your mine, and we'd like to help."

"That would be great, but we don't have the money to hire adventurers right now," Broo said with a wry smile. "Or possibly ever. We've had to refund everyone who's bought iron off us in the last few weeks. The town funds are running low. Unless your elemental friend there is looking to buy some coal, but even then we'll need the money to relocate and dig a new mine."

Glancing towards Flame Princess, Finn saw that the fire girl was collecting the still-glowing fragments of metal and paying no attention to them. He looked towards Jake questioningly, but the dog only shrugged, equally nonplussed by her actions. Turning back to Broo, Finn shook his head. "I don't think she is but that's cool, we don't want paid," the human said brightly, ignoring the face Jake made at his words. "We just want to help. What's the problem with the mine?"

"Wait, you're serious?" One look at Finn's face was enough to give Broo his answer, and although he looked sceptical, there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "We're pretty sure it's rust monsters. The ore that we're digging out seems to be corroded; when we melt it down into iron it seems fine but the minute we try working it, it shatters. We didn't find that out until after we got an order for a shipment of weapons from Marauder Village, and if I wasn't from there then this entire town would probably have been burned to the ground by now since we couldn't deliver on it." Broo grimaced at the memory, and then went on.

"There's not a lot of things that can do that to ore, but Yelena – that's the mine mistress - swears she saw a rust monster down there," the Marauder explained. "We've had problems with them before, but normally they don't go for ore, they prefer to eat iron after it's been smelted. Yelena's guess was that one ran down into the mine the last time we were chasing them away from the iron stores and got lost down there. But given the amount of ore that's being rotted there's either more than one or it's breeding. So the problem's just getting worse."

"Question," Jake began, jerking a thumb in the direction that Jorgen had gone. "If it's monsters, why not get that guy to go beat on them? That sounds like an easy fix."

"You've never seen a rust monster, huh?" Broo replied. "The name 'monster' is misleading; you're probably thinking of some kind of metal eating ogre or something, right? Thought so," he added as Finn and Jake nodded. "Well, they're more like big bugs. And not super big either, about this size," Broo continued, holding his hands about three feet apart. "And that's long, not tall. They can squeeze into fissures that a gnome couldn't fit down, and they're fast. Even worse, folk like me and Jorgen can only fit into the main mineshaft - a lot of our miners ARE gnomes. And a lot of them have – or had – metal prosthetics so they're not in any hurry to go chasing after the little buggers."

"So… how do they actually eat the metal?" Finn asked curiously. "How…" The boy started slightly as there was a sudden flash and burst of heat from behind him, looking around to see that Flame Princess had finished gathering the metallic fragments and was cupping them in both hands, which were now glowing white-hot. He still had no idea what the fire girl was doing, so turned back to Broo instead. "How does rust come into it?"

"Basically, they rust the metal then eat it, like that's how they season it or something," Broo replied. "They've got these long antenna," and the Marauder put his hands to the sides of his head and waggled his index fingers expressively. "Once those touch anything metal, it starts turning to rust, and the little fracks just gobble that up."

"Did you try trapping them?" Jake asked, with the uneasy feeling that it was a stupid question. From the way Broo rolled his eyes, it was obvious that Marauder felt the same.

"Of course we tried that!" Broo snorted dismissively. "Glob, we're not that dumb. Trouble is that metal cages are no good since they just eat their way out. We tried wooden ones, but they can chew through wood. Tried crates, and the little shiz rusted the nails holding them together, ate them, then knocked the panels apart. They chewed through nets too. We even tried a couple of cave-in traps but the cave rats kept setting those off, and there's only so many shafts you can collapse before the entire mine becomes unstable."

"Then I guess we need to go down there and slice up some bugs!" Finn exclaimed, drawing his sword. Then, with sudden realisation, he hesitated. "Uhhhh, will that even…"

"Work?" Broo finished for him. "Not in the slightest, the moment those antenna touch your sword, it's gone. You might still hit the fracker, but all that'll happen is your weapon will break apart even faster." Going over to the forge Jorgen had been using, Broo rummaged around in the woodpile and pulled out a heavy length of wood, throwing it to the boy. "Here, if you can actually corner one, you can bash its brains in with this. Best I can do for you I'm afraid. It's cornering them that'll be the hard part; they can scuttle off down passages you won't fit down."

"Yeah, but I will!" Jake shrank himself down to demonstrate, taking the shape of a plug. "Or I could do this," the dog added, morphing into a cage. "Could do a net too come to think of it…"

Blinking in surprise, Broo stared at Jake for a few moments, then looked at Finn who was taking practice swings with his makeshift club. "You guys might actually pull this off…" the Marauder muttered, his hopes rising despite himself. "If you do then we'll owe you big-time, you'll have saved the- woah!" Broo's words were drowned out by a sudden metallic shriek, and the three of them turned to see steam billowing out of a barrel by the forge, with Flame Princess standing a short distance away.

Flame Princess hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention to the conversation, focusing on the shattered metal in her hands. It had rapidly melted into a fluid state, smoke rising as the impurities were burned away. No matter what heat the forges of Blacksmith Town could reach, they were no match for the temperatures the flame girl could generate when she put her mind to it. As the oxides in the metal became slag and floated to the surface, Flame Princess deftly flicked them out but more kept forming until what had previously been a double handful of molten metal was reduced to a puddle in the palm of her right hand. Catching sight of a quenching barrel by the forge, Flame Princess let the metal cool until she could mould it into a rough ball, then tossed it into the water. The superheated metal plunged into the liquid with an almost human-sounding scream, which immediately got the others' attention.

"What happened?" Finn was beside the fire girl in a flash, looking from her to the steaming barrel. "Are you okay? What was that sound?"

"I'm fine, that was just the metal hitting the water," Flame Princess replied casually. "It was really, really hot." From the way that the water in the barrel was still steaming and bubbling furiously it was obvious that she wasn't exaggerating. "I melted it down to get more of the slag out, but there was hardly any metal left."

"Uh-huh…" Broo sounded sceptical, but lifted the tongs Jorgen had been using all the same, and used them to fish around in the barrel at arms' length to keep his face out of the steam. Retrieving a small shape, he dropped it onto the anvil carefully. It was a somewhat deformed ball the size of a marble, dull grey in colour. Despite the unimpressive appearance, Broo looked at it closely, and then picked it up. To the others' surprise the Marauder popped it into his mouth and bit down hard on it, then spat it back out. "That's… actually pretty decent iron there," he said, oblivious to their expressions. "Though that thing started as a hundredweight of ore, and that's barely an ounce. So yeah, the sooner you guys can get rid of the monsters, the sooner we can get production going again."

Picking up the ball of iron, Broo swirled it in the quenching barrel then tossed it back to Flame Princess. "You might want to make more if you can," he advised. "You could use it as bait, those little frackers haven't been interested in the stuff we've been smelting with the tainted ore."

"Then I guess I should go with you guys," Flame Princess said to Finn, glad to have a reason to accompany them into the mine. It was a flimsy excuse at best, but it would be better than nothing in the inevitable confrontation with her mother later.

"Are you sure?" Finn looked concerned, obviously wondering how Princess Bubblegum would react. "What about your mom?"

"Well…" As she shifted her weight uncomfortably, Flame Princess suddenly remembered something that Peppermint Butler had told her a long time ago. "I won't tell her if you don't," she finished with a grin.

"That's the spirit!" Jake clapped the fire girl on the back briefly. "What your mom doesn't know won't hurt her."

Finn looked a bit more doubtful, but Jake's confidence was infectious. "Okay then, let's go beat up some rust monsters!" Setting off towards the mine entrance at a sprint, the boy was quickly swallowed up by the dark tunnel.

"Darn it Finn, not without a lantern!" Jake yelled as he followed. "Don't run crying to me when you fall down and break both your legs!"

"I don't think we'll need a lantern," Flame Princess illuminated a long stretch of the tunnel as she landed by the entrance, revealing that Finn had already tripped on a jutting rock but was scrambling back to his feet. "It totally is a good idea for me to go with you guys. Mom won't even notice I'm gone…"


	27. Chapter 27

It was pointless getting the Morrow to land; Princess Bubblegum could already tell that the tree fort was empty. There was a subtle sense of vacancy behind the dark windows that told her nobody was home, and somehow that still touched a raw nerve within her. Bubblegum let the giant hawk spiral down to the ground anyway, hoping that if she just kept exposing herself to the bittersweet emotions that the sight of the tree evoked within her then she'd eventually build up an immunity.

The Morrow squawked a query as the candy princess leapt down to the grass, and Bubblegum shook her head in response. "No, I'll walk back," she told the bird, patting its neck fondly. "It'll buy me more time," she added in a mutter. Shrugging its wings, the Morrow launched itself back into the air with a keening screech. There was much better hunting in the Grasslands after all, and the giant bird had a hankering for some venison.

Bubblegum had already noticed the sheet of paper that had been stuck to the tree fort's door, but for now she ignored it and retraced the steps she'd taken centuries ago instead. The pond was larger than she remembered, but the bulrushes seemed much smaller. There was no way she'd be able to hide in those now. Approaching the tree, Bubblegum slowly walked around the huge trunk, running one hand over the rough bark. Nearly a thousand years later, and she still had no idea why it was still alive. It had stopped growing now, but still put out fresh leaves every year and seemed perfectly healthy even though it was hollow. Well, except for that couple of branches...

_"That's why we didn't stay before," Marceline said, pointing up at the naked branches above them. Dull grey and skeletal, they were a jarring contrast to the thick foliage around them. "Simon did that. He didn't mean to of course, but he said he'd kill the tree just by being here. And that that wouldn't be fair on the tree."_

_"Well, he did have a point," Bonnie replied, not without some trepidation. Simon was still a very delicate subject. "And I don't think that most people would have cared about the tree, they'd just have let it die. So he must have been kind."_

_Marceline didn't reply to that, hugging her knees against her chest as she nodded instead. The two girls sat in silence for a few moments, shoulder to shoulder, and then Marceline sighed heavily. "Sometimes I think I should just cut those branches out and use them for firewood," she murmured, lowering her head to stare at the grass._

_"But?" the pink girl prompted gently, covering one of Marceline's hands with her own._

_"But it reminds me of him," Marceline's voice was almost a whisper. "And that he used to be kind. When he still remembered me. I miss him." With another sigh, she let her head drop onto Bonnie's shoulder, black hair spilling across them both like ink. Putting an arm around the other girl, Bonnie felt Marceline snuggle against her as the two of them watched the sun set._

Bubblegum pushed the memory away with an irritated scowl. She was supposed to be getting over this nostalgia, not indulging in it. Even so, she kept walking around the tree to where she and Marceline had once carved their initials, only to find that they had vanished. The candy princess frowned, looking to either side and upwards but seeing no sign of the letters. Maybe she was in the wrong spot, but given her excellent memory that was extremely unlikely. What was more likely was that they had simply healed over and been covered by new bark since the tree was uncommonly resilient.

"Take a freaking hint Bonnibel," she muttered to herself. "I can't believe you're still letting yourself get all mopetown over this." Shaking her head as if shaking off those thoughts, Bubblegum went back round the tree to the door to read the paper that had been lopsidedly nailed to it. _'Gon on advenchur'_ – and the princess shuddered in near-physical pain at the atrocious spelling – _'Bak latur. Pleez leev a note.'_ There was a pencil tied to a bit of string that had been wrapped around one of the nails, presumably for leaving a message, and Bubblegum had to fight back the urge to use it to correct the clumsy words. She could always ask some polite questions later, find out whether it was Finn or Jake who'd written them, then take remedial action.

As she turned around to head back to the Candy Kingdom, the princess grimaced as she looked at the hills that were currently between it and her. She was tempted to call the Morrow back, but she had told the bird she was going to walk. And it would buy her time; if Finn and Jake had already left for Blacksmith Town then she could just tell Flame Princess that they had gone without her when she got back. And by that time it would be too late for her to follow them. Problem solved.

o.o.o.o.o

"So, is this what adventuring is like?" Flame Princess asked curiously, her voice echoing hollowly along the main tunnel of the mine. She was drifting along behind Finn and Jake as she melted another handful of rusted ore into a small iron nugget. The young elemental already had a pocket full of small iron globules, some still glowing a dull orange, but wasn't sure how many they'd need.

"Normally it's more exciting," Finn sounded crestfallen as he replied. "This is total dullsville. I haven't even seen a cave rat."

"They don't like the light," Jake explained, his voice weirdly nasal and high-pitched as he'd enlarged his snout to get a better sense of smell. So far he'd only caught wind of the occasional rodent scent, nothing that suggested an insect. "And Flame Princess is way better than a torch. Uhhh, no offence or anything," he added.

"None taken," the fire girl replied, looking up from the molten ore in her hand. Being several orders of magnitude brighter than a torch, she cast light much farther and didn't flicker like firelight. "If it helps then that's good, it means my mom can't get too mad with me for coming with you. I'm helping," she repeated, with an uneasy mix of uncertainty and defiance.

The mine was indeed boring for the three adventurers, perhaps because none of them had livelihoods depending on it. Instead, all they saw was the long tunnel stretching ahead of them, with occasional galleries leading off to one side or the other. They all looked exactly the same.

"We'd better be careful," Finn said as he looked along one of the side tunnels to where it eventually disappeared into darkness. "It would be hella easy to get lost down here when we start exploring the other tunnels. We'll need to leave marks or something so we know where we've been."

"Ugh, this place is huge," Jake grumbled. "How the ham are we supposed to find a bunch of bugs in here? It's not like they'll be sitting in one place and waiting for us."

"I could put some iron out and we could wait and see if they come for it," Flame Princess suggested, and then hesitated. "Though if they don't like light they might not come out... and if they're in a different part of the mine it wouldn't work. How do they even find iron? Do they smell it or something? Can bugs even smell?"

There was an awkward pause, which was eventually broken by Jake. "Maybe we should have asked that before we came down here," the dog sighed. "I got no idea how they find it. Or if they don't like light."

Finn considered the situation for a moment, then his expression brightened. "What if we leave a trail of iron nuggets behind us as we go?" he suggested. "We could go round one of the side tunnels then retrace our steps, and if any of the iron is gone then we'll know that there's a monster nearby."

"Sounds good to me," Jake said with a shrug, not having any better ideas. "You got enough iron there, Princess?"

"Yeah, I've got plenty," the young elemental replied, dropping a couple of nuggets. "I can always make more," she added, internally commenting to herself that accompanying Finn and Jake had been the right decision. They wouldn't have been able to make iron from the rusted ore without her.

"Awesome!" Finn grinned at the fire girl, pleased that he'd been able to come up with a good idea while she was there. "It's a good thing you came with us," the boy said as they started walking again, unknowingly echoing her thoughts.

"Thanks, I'm glad I could help," Flame Princess responded with a smile, happy that it wasn't just herself who was thinking that. If Finn told her mom that as well, maybe Princess Bubblegum wouldn't be so mad if she found out that the fire girl had gone down the mine without permission.

They kept walking for another fifteen minutes, turning off into the next gallery and walking along it. Flame Princess dropped an iron pellet every twenty feet or so, and Finn used a sharp piece of rock to scrape an X into the wall at each spot. Eventually, the light from Flame Princess illuminated a rough wall of rock ahead of them where the tunnel ended and they slowed to a halt, the echoes of their footsteps slowly fading. And once those had died away, Jake was the first to hear the faint scuffling that their footsteps had masked.

A few moments later Finn heard it as well and opened his mouth to ask if the others did too. Jake held up a hand to silence his brother before he could speak, listening carefully. Flame Princess understood the gesture as well, and kept quiet. The noise could have been cave rats - they had a similar skittering tread - but cave rats wouldn't have been getting closer, they would have been deterred by the bright light from Flame Princess. Finn readied his makeshift club, shifting his stance so that he was in front of the fire girl, shielding her.

The seconds ticked past as slowly as hours, the only sounds breaking the silence apart from the mysterious scuttling were the breathing of the three adventurers and the soft crackle of Flame Princess' hair. Then two points of light appeared in the darkness, reflecting the firelight, as the creature following them came into view.

Finn had been expecting a giant cockroach or beetle, but the thing that emerged from the darkness looked more like some kind of terrestrial four-legged shrimp. Its body was long and slender, a fluked tail curved upwards over its back and a large pair of plumed antennae flickering over the ground ahead of it like feather dusters. It didn't seem at all bothered by either the light or their presence, instead heading unerringly to where one of the iron nuggets was gleaming dully on the stone floor.

The creature looked almost like it was wearing armour, covered in jointed plates of russet chitin that clicked softly as it moved. Its eyes were small and jet black, gleaming like jewels in an insectile head. And it appeared completely harmless, unless it used its tail as a weapon. It had no claws or pincers, and its mandibles were short and stubby as if made for grazing rather than biting.

As the large insect grew nearer, Finn raised the heavy club in readiness. It might look benign, but Finn had fought enough monsters to know that it could be an act. However, instead of attacking, the rust monster stopped when it reached the iron nugget. Its antenna briefly flickered over the small piece of metal, which immediately crumbled into powdery rust that the creature shovelled into its mouth with the aid of the flat blades on its tail. Maybe that wasn't a weapon after all. Looking at the creature regretfully, Finn grimaced at the thought of killing it. Compared to what he'd been expecting, the rust monster was fairly inoffensive. But the future of Blacksmith Town depended on getting rid of it, so the boy sighed heavily and took a step forward. But before he could do anything else Flame Princess darted past him with a cry.

"Oh my Glob, it's so cute!" Kneeling beside the rust monster, the fire girl offered it another couple of iron nuggets. Using its antenna to reduce them to rust, the creature ate out of Flame Princess' hand as placidly as a tame pony. Her heat didn't seem to bother it any more than the light did, and she giggled as the rust monster's antenna flittered over her head and torso. "That tickles!"

"Good job FP, you keep distracting it," Jake called to her, then dropped his voice to a low whisper as he glanced towards Finn. "What are you waiting for, dude?" the dog hissed, elbowing the boy sharply. "Go bash its brains in before it runs off!"

"I don't think I can, man," Finn replied, looking deeply troubled now. "It seems pretty harmless, just because it eats iron doesn't mean we should kill it."

"We don't have to kill it, do we?" Flame Princess asked plaintively, petting the creature's head. It didn't appear to object to the contact, it seemed more interested in eating. "Couldn't we just take it outside and let it go away from the town?"

"And what if it got loose in the town?" Jake pointed out. "Yeah, so it's cute, whatever. But it's still a threat to the town."

"I'd still feel bad about jacking it up," Finn said uneasily. "It's not like it's doing anything bad on purpose."

Flame Princess had been welding a handful of iron nuggets into a larger knobbled ball, and looked up as it cooled in her hands. "It can't help eating iron any more than I can help being made of fire," she stated. "Maybe my mom would know what we should do with it- hey!"

As the iron ball cooled, the rust monster had taken a sudden interest in it, thrusting its head forwards as its forelegs scrabbled at Flame Princess' knees, its antenna sweeping back and forth across her head and shoulders. Again, Finn raised his club; although he didn't want to hurt the creature that would change as soon as it attacked Flame Princess. But it made no aggressive actions or attempt to bite, it clearly just wanted the iron.

"Yes, it's for you, stop fussing!" Flame Princess laughed, holding out the lump of iron to the rust monster. To her surprise, it folded its antenna back as it appeared to eye the iron thoughtfully instead of immediately rusting it. Then it chirruped like an overgrown cricket, seized the iron in its mandibles and immediately scuttled back the way it had come. "Wait, where are you going?" Springing back into the air, Flame Princess followed the creature without thinking, forgetting that she was Finn and Jake's only light source in the tunnels.

"Flame Princess! Wait up!" Luckily, Finn had realised that without the fire girl he and Jake would be left in pitch darkness, and the boy quickly gave chase with Jake running beside him. The rust monster led the adventurers along several twisting tunnels, taking them deeper and deeper into the mine. Finally, it disappeared into a large crack in one of the stone walls that was just large enough to admit it. Flame Princess stopped in front of it, a quick look enough to tell her that there was no way she'd fit through.

"Ah, glob it," the young elemental muttered as Finn and Jake caught up with her. "It went in there," she told them, pointing at the crack. Jake looked at it thoughtfully for a few moments, rubbing his chin.

"I've got an idea," the dog told them. "But you two need to back off a ways in case this goes wrong, okay?"

"Okay bro, be careful." Finn replied, retreating a short distance along the tunnel and indicating for Flame Princess to follow. The fire girl obeyed, watching Jake curiously.

"Don't hurt it, Jake," Flame Princess called to the dog beseechingly. "We can get it out of the mine without killing it!"

Grumbling to himself, Jake morphed himself down into a smaller form until he could fit into the fissure. Then he expanded – not to his normal size, but into a shape that filled the crack in the stone perfectly. Taking a deep breath, he then enlarged the parts of himself that were lodged into places where the stone was starting to fracture even further, shattering those weak points to enlarge the hole. And hoping that wouldn't bring the rest of the tunnel down on him in the process; it wouldn't do much damage to his rubbery hide but digging himself out would be a pain.

Fortunately for Jake, while a large portion of the stone shattered and collapsed onto him, the fractures only spread for a few feet around him. The dust slowly cleared as the rock stopped its ominous groaning and revealed that the small crack was now large enough for Finn and Flame Princess to fit through.

"I'll go first, we don't know what else could be in there," Finn said as he walked back over to his brother. "Flame Princess, you go after me. Jake, you go last." Without waiting for them to agree, the boy hefted his club and went through the hole in the rock. Flame Princess followed quickly, but Jake took his time, rubbing his head with another grumble. However, upon hearing a sharp, high-pitched gasp of shock from the fire girl, the dog darted through the opening he'd made in a shot. That sounded like trouble.

o.o.o.o.o

By the time Princess Bubblegum got back to the Candy Kingdom, it was close to nightfall. She hadn't seen any sign of Finn and Jake, and guessed that they would still be at Blacksmith Town. They were bound to be back by morning though, and since she'd told Flame Princess that she'd sleep on the decision then it would work out fine. As she made her way back to the castle, Bubblegum couldn't help feeling a certain level of self-satisfaction. This way she had time to engineer a situation that Flame Princess could help Finn and Jake investigate – one that was perfectly safe and managed and also covertly supervised – and get a better idea of just how far she could trust them with her daughter. Much better than letting her run off into a potentially dangerous mine.

Upon reaching the castle, Bubblegum went to Flame Princess' practice room, knocking on the door before pushing it open. To her surprise it was empty, the glass furnace dark and cold. Bubblegum's mouth twisted wryly, guessing this meant that the fire girl was sulking in her room, so she headed there next. There was no answer as she rapped the door, and with a sigh the candy princess pushed it open, expecting to be met with a sullen glower from her daughter… who wasn't there either.

"Feuer?" Stepping into the room, Bubblegum looked around carefully. There was no sign of Flame Princess, but one of the windows was open. Going over to it, Bubblegum looked out over the gardens below. Since it was getting dark, the young elemental should have been easy to spot if she was out there, but the only lights Bubblegum could see were from the lamps lining the walkways. Suspicion was starting to gather in the back of her mind now, but the candy princess told herself that it was a big castle, and Flame Princess could be anywhere inside it.

"Peppermint!" Bubblegum knew she'd only need to shout once; somehow Peppermint Butler always knew whenever anyone said his name. That definitely wasn't something she'd taught him, although she had a pretty good idea where and from whom he'd learned it.

A few moments later, the mint man appeared in the doorway, panting slightly. "You called, milady?" he said breathlessly.

"Yes, I was wondering where Feuer had gotten to," the candy princess replied, keeping her tone light rather than interrogatory. That would come later, if Peppermint tried to bend the truth. But instead he answered straight away, without any trace of subterfuge.

"Oh, she's not back yet," Peppermint Butler's voice was casual, as if he thought this wouldn't be news to Bubblegum. "She went off with Finn and Jake; you just missed them when you left."

"She did WHAT?!" Bubblegum's exclamation made the mint man jump back in sudden fright, looking up at her in confusion. "Why didn't you stop her?"

"Hey man, I didn't know I was supposed to stop her!" Peppermint protested indignantly. "After all, I DID ask you if she should be hanging around that boy, and you said you didn't mind them hanging out. So why in the thirty-ninth Dead World would I have stopped her?"

Bubblegum opened her mouth to retort, but then closed it again. The mint man did have a good point there. Maybe she should have told him that Flame Princess wasn't allowed to go to Blacksmith Town with Finn and Jake before she left, but… "I didn't think she'd disobey me." Bubblegum finished the thought aloud. "I told her she wasn't allowed to go with them."

Peppermint looked surprised at that. "You told her she wasn't allowed to go, and she went anyway? That Finn boy must be a bad influence."

"Well… not exactly…" the princess sighed, winding a length of her hair around one hand and squeezing it like a stress ball. "I told her I was going to think about it…"

"Well, there's your loophole," Peppermint said knowingly. "Saying 'I'll think about it' isn't a no, is it?" Bubblegum's response was an irate growl that made the mint man's grin vanish. "Uhhhh… shall I ready a carriage?"

"No, I'll call the Morrow," Bubblegum replied shortly. "But I want you to put fireproof locks on Feuer's windows while I'm gone. Because somebody is going to be SO grounded when I get back…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are wondering, the rust monster is entirely based on the D&D equivalent, the 3rd edition version in particular because it is ADORABLE.


	28. Chapter 28

"Oh my Gob," Flame Princess' voice was a high-pitched squeak as she clutched at the sides of her face, her expression melting into surprised delight. "It has babies! They're so tiny!"

Finn couldn't help thinking that the fire girl had a rather odd definition of 'tiny'; the five little rust monsters that were clustered around the iron ball that their parent had brought back for them were still roughly the size of his forearm. The adult rust monster seemed to eye them with suspicion for a few moments as Flame Princess moved closer, but settled when all she did was crouch down and extend a hand towards its brood.

One of the small creatures scuttled over to investigate Flame Princess' outstretched hand, presumably scenting the traces of iron on her palm. The fire girl giggled as its antenna swept across her hand, wriggling her fingers helplessly at the tickling sensation.

"Ah, great," Stepping through into the small chamber, Jake sighed as he saw the baby rust monsters. "Lemme guess, now you really don't want to bash their brains in?" The latter was directed at Finn, whose head snapped towards him with an expression of shocked outrage.

"Dude!" the boy exclaimed reproachfully. "They're just babies, I CAN'T do that! That is so unheroic that... that..." Analogies failed him, so Finn just glared at his brother instead. "Not cool man."

"So we're not helping the townsfolk after all then?" Jake asked pointedly, hands on hips. "Sometimes you gotta make hard choices dude; either we save Blacksmith Town or we save the metal eating bugs." The dog paused as he regarded the little rust monsters, who had reduced the iron ball to a rapidly shrinking handful of rust flakes. "They are kinda cute I guess," he said grudgingly. "But what about the town?"

Finn was silent for a few moments, thinking. Then he sighed heavily. "I dunno man... I wanna save the town... but I can't just bash in their brains. What do you think, Flame Princess?"

"Nobody is going to be bashing in their brains," the fire girl said firmly. She'd lifted the rust monster that had been scenting her hand and was feeding it rust flakes with one hand while holding it with the other. It didn't seem to mind, and didn't struggle in the slightest as it wolfed down the rust. Like their parent, who had now settled down amidst a nest of what looked like wooden tool handles and wheelbarrow parts, the small creatures seemed to have no fear of the adventurers whatsoever. "I wonder why they're so tame," the girl mused thoughtfully. "Do you think they were pets?"

"Maybe," Finn replied, shrugging. "Or maybe they just aren't scared of people."

"I think that most people run away from them before they can eat their metal," Jake commented. "I wouldn't be scared of people if they ran away from me all the time either. And I don't think they make good pets unless you're a tree person or something – you might think they're cute, Princess, but I don't think your mom would. I know you live in the Candy Kingdom, but I'm pretty sure you still use metal there…"

"I could keep them in my workshop!" Flame Princess protested, then considered that. "…though they'd eat through the metal parts of my glass furnace. And then they might get hurt by the melted glass."

"And if they got loose – like if they ate the hinges off the door," Jake pointed out. "Then they'd be loose in the castle."

Flame Princess' face twisted as she considered that situation. "Yeah, that would not end well. If they got into my mom's lab… actually I don't even want to think of that. But we're still not killing them!" she added quickly.

With a stifled groan, Jake started to walk around the small chamber, examining the walls. "We could seal them up in here," he suggested. "That would keep them out of the rest of the mine."

"But they'd starve!" Flame Princess protested, hugging the little creature she was holding at the thought.

"Maybe they'd dig their way out," Jake replied. "Just so long as they didn't find their way back into the- auff!" Tripping as his foot caught on the uneven stone floor, Jake landed face down upon it.

"You okay?" Going over to his brother, Finn saw that Jake's entire foot had disappeared into a crack in the stone like the one which had led into the small chamber, only much smaller.

"Yeah, fine," Jake muttered, pulling his foot free. "Jeez, if this whole place is full of cracks like that then I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed in on itself…"

Putting the little rust monster down, Flame Princess went over to crouch beside Finn, looking down at the crack curiously. "The tunnels are pretty solid," she commented, feeling a twinge of remorse as she remembered her mother's worries about the mine being unstable. The fire girl decided to leave this part out when she told her about it later. "Huh, that looks like it's really deep in the rock…"

The split in the stone was several inches wide, just enough for Flame Princess to fit her hand into. Pushing her hand further into it to gauge its depth, the young elemental found that it extended much deeper than she could reach into, and seemed to widen as it went. Drawing her hand out, Flame Princess concentrated and fire erupted from her skin, limning her fingers in flames. They rippled and flickered as she held her hand over the crack, showing that there was airflow through it. "Are there deeper tunnels?" she asked Finn. "I thought we were in the deepest part of the mine, but there must be more tunnels or caverns or something if there's air coming through."

"Here, lemme see how far down it goes." Flame Princess moved aside as Jake knelt down beside the crack, flattening one arm and inserting it into the cleft in the rock. The dog frowned as his arm lengthened, feeling that the crack did indeed get wider as it grew deeper, until it was more of a narrow shaft. After two minutes, his hand still hadn't hit the bottom, though Jake guessed he'd stretched his arm out by at least five hundred feet. The dog was lying on the stone floor now, the rest of his body starting to thin as more of his mass went into lengthening his arm.

"Don't think this leads to part of the mine," Jake grunted, starting to get a twinge in his shoulder. "This is going through solid rock, and it's starting to get pretty freaking hot. I don't think the mine goes this deep- ah ha!" he exclaimed as his groping fingers found a solid stone surface.

"What did you find, Jake?" Finn asked excitedly. "Is it monsters? Loot?"

"Naw bro, just where the crack stops," Jake replied, frowning as he waved his hand around what felt like empty space. "Think it might be a cave or something, lemme look." The dog closed one eye as if he was winking at his companions, then Flame Princess recoiled with a shocked gasp as it seemed to sink back into Jake's skull, the eyelid and socket smoothing into seamless tan-furred skin as if it had never existed. "It's okay Princess," Jake reassured the fire girl, looking at her with his remaining eye. "It's not gone, I'm just moving it."

"He does this kind of thing all the time," Finn added confidently. "I wish I could move my eyeballs around, then I could keep lookout and play Beemo at the same time."

"Told ya before, Finn," Jake grunted, his eyeball bouncing uncomfortably against the sides of the small chasm as it travelled down his arm. "That's a lot harder than it looks."

"And it's kinda gross," Flame Princess put in, looking slightly queasy.

"Yeah, says the girl who was petting giant bugs a minute ago..." Jake muttered to himself as his eye reached his hand and emerged from his palm, blinking blearily. "Right, let's see now... should be able to tell if it's a mine tunnel once I get a good look at it..." The dog covered the eye that was still in his head to get better vision with the other, darkness slowly resolving itself into a rough rock tunnel that was dimly illuminated by a distant red glow. "Nope, definitely not part of the mine, it's some kind of tunnel but not like the ones the miners dig. Too rough, and there's no lanterns or supports or anything."

Flame Princess considered that for a few moments, absently stroking the little rust monster who'd scurried over to nose at the traces of rust on her fingers. "Then what if we get these little guys and their mom down there, then we can just seal up the rock behind them," she suggested. "That way the mine's safe and so are the rust monsters."

"Well yeah, that would work," Jake began with feigned brightness that quickly disappeared. "Except we have no way of tunnelling through several hundred feet of solid rock. And even if we did, it would take forever. Your mom would definitely notice if you were gone for several weeks."

"Couldn't you stretch into the crack to break it like you did to the wall?" Finn asked, only to be met with a withering look from his brother.

"For one thing, the floor is a heck of a lot thicker than the wall," Jake stated. "For another, that would collapse the tunnel underneath us for sure. And finally, we are STANDING on the floor. So not a good plan all round."

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Flame Princess spoke up again. "I could melt through the rock," she said, trying to sound confident. "I could bore a hole right through to the tunnel, then melt it shut again." Inwardly the young elemental had some reservations on that score, mostly because she'd never tried to channel so much power before, but it seemed like the best option to save both the mine and the rust monsters. Finn and Jake's response was to stare at her disbelievingly for several moments.

"You can do that?" Finn asked hesitantly. His face lit up as Flame Princess nodded. "That's freaking awesome!"

"That's going through solid rock," Jake cut in, sounding both sceptical and concerned. "You sure you can do that, Princess?"

"I'm sure, I melt glass all the time," the fire girl replied firmly, though she was wishing she'd thought to bring some of the coal from the forge supplies with her. "But you guys better get back... WAY back. It'll get seriously hot in here when I get started. Here." She handed Finn a handful of small iron nuggets, the last of the ones she'd made. "See if you can tempt the rust monsters out with those."

"Okay," Finn agreed, rattling the metal fragments in a cupped palm. The small rust monsters looked at him curiously, attracted by the metallic sound, but didn't move. "Uhhhh... go get it?" The boy threw the iron out of the hole Jake had smashed in the wall to land in the tunnel outside with a clatter. That got the little creatures' attention, and they scurried out of the small cavern after the metal. The adult monster gave a worried chirp as its brood disappeared, and quickly followed them.

As Finn stepped through the hole in the wall after them, Jake stretched himself across it, blocking the hole almost completely except for a few inches at the top so air could still flow through. The iron nuggets were already mostly rust and mostly eaten but the little creatures didn't seem to be interested in going back into their nest, investigating the tunnel instead as their parent chittered in agitation, trying to corral them before they ran off. Finn could have sworn that it gave him a reproachful look as it herded the baby rust monsters to one side. He had stepped forwards to help when he was suddenly blinded by a blast of bright light and heat from the cavern.

When Finn's vision cleared the little rust monsters had all but disappeared, hiding beneath their parent's chitinous body with only their antenna showing. Without further ado, the adult creature sat on them like a mother hen, ignoring the muffled chirps of protest. Satisfied that he wouldn't have to chase them now, Finn turned back to his brother. Jake was still stretched across the entrance to the small cavern, but his expression plainly showed that he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Before you ask, yeah, it's really freaking hot," the dog grimaced. "I hope Flame Princess knows what the heck she's doing..."

It was just as well that Jake was unaware that the fire girl was acting on theory instead of practice. Flame Princess knew full well that rock was very different to glass, but it still melted when it got hot enough and wouldn't burst into flames. At least she was reasonably sure it wouldn't burst into flames; Jake had said it was solid rock after all. Hopefully that meant no coal seams.

Concentrating hard, the young elemental focused all of her heat into her feet. It was difficult keeping herself on the ground while she did so; Flame Princess was used to using heat blasts to launch herself into the air and kept rising from the floor without thinking. It wouldn't really matter if she was touching it or not, as the sheer amount of radiant heat she was generating would act like a powerful welding torch.

Beneath her the rock was heating rapidly, trails of smoke starting to rise and spiral around the levitating fire girl like velvety grey ribbons as they were caught by the convection currents she had created. At first it seemed like nothing was happening, but that was only because the sullen red glow of the heated stone was masked by the illumination Flame Princess was providing. The girl poked at it with one toe, feeling the formerly solid surface shift and crack like ice. Ice that had boiling magma beneath it instead of water.

Then, suddenly, the stone appeared to sag, forming a deep, glowing pothole in the floor. Flame Princess carefully lowered herself at the same rate as it was sinking, keeping the temperature even. If her guess was right, the liquefied rock would be starting to drip through the crevasse leading to the tunnel below, and as the heat spread the reaction would only get faster. If she hadn't been expecting it, Flame Princess knew she could easily have plummeted through the softening stone, and Glob only knew how deep she'd have ended up in that situation.

As she sank further into the floor, Flame Princess started to lean to one side so that the shaft she was creating would be angled instead of a straight drop. Dropping the rust monsters down several hundred feet would hardly be saving them after all. The depression she'd formed in the rock didn't seem to be sinking any further, though it was glowing bright orange now, so the fire girl slowly lowered herself into the pool of molten rock, feeling for the bottom with her toes. The searing heat would have vaporised most organic materials, but to Flame Princess it felt comfortable and pleasant, like a warm bath would to a human.

The pool began to widen slowly as the young elemental sank deeper, keeping a tight focus on her heat levels. Her feet momentarily struck solid stone, but it rapidly dissolved into magma at her touch. And then, suddenly, it was as if someone had pulled a plug somewhere, and the liquid stone began to drain away beneath her. Flame Princess followed it, gouging out handfuls of softened stone as she went to create foot- and handholds in the tunnel she was forming. And suddenly she hit empty space – the magma had melted its way into the wider part of the crack and plunged through. Flame Princess could hear it hitting the floor of the lower tunnel far below. It was still much too deep to drop the rust monsters down though; but maybe Jake would be willing to lower them.

Rising back up into the nest chamber, the fire girl slumped down onto the floor as her flames dimmed in exhaustion. That had taken much more out of her than she'd thought. It was just as well she'd hit the larger part of the crack when she had. Initially, Flame Princess had thought she'd be able to bore a new hole all the way down to the lower tunnel, but now she was sure that if she'd tried that, she'd have gotten stuck in it when her energy ran out. Or she'd have panicked and plummeted right past it.

"…why didn't I think to bring some globbing coal, there was a ton of it on the surface…" she muttered to herself irritably. "Should have been prepared, like Mom always says…"

"Flame Princess?" Finn tugged Jake's stretched form to one side like a curtain, only to recoil as he was hit by a wave of heat. "You okay?" he asked from a safer distance as Jake returned to his normal shape.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the fire girl replied breathlessly as she sat up. "Just running low on energy. Should have brought some fuel with me." There was a short pause, then the heavy length of wood Finn had brought to use as a club landed beside her with a clatter.

"Will that help?" the boy asked from the tunnel, unable to get much closer until some of the heat had dissipated. "It's not like I'm gonna need it now, I'm not gonna be bashing any brains in."

"Thanks," Flame Princess said gratefully as she lifted the wooden cudgel. It only scorched slightly at her touch; she'd used up so much energy melting the stone that even her skin temperature had dropped. After a few seconds of concentration the wood slowly began to smoulder, then caught light and began to burn steadily. Flame Princess brightened as it was consumed, getting back to her feet as Finn and Jake cautiously stepped back into the chamber.

"Holy cheezits…" Jake's voice was awed as he saw the hole that the young elemental had bored into the floor. Although the molten stone had now solidified, it was still glowing dully and giving off huge amounts of heat, the air above it shimmering with thermals. "That's… pretty impressive, Princess."

"Pretty impressive?" Finn sounded insulted on Flame Princess' behalf. "More like totally freaking radical!" Ignoring the heat, Finn leaned over the shaft that the fire girl had created to look down it, seeing it disappear into darkness. "Does that go all the way down to the tunnel Jake was talking about?"

"Yeah, but it's a sheer drop once it gets about a hundred feet down," Flame Princess replied, shaking ash from her hands. "So we'll need to figure out a way to get the rust monsters down there. Could you help with that, Jake?"

"I guess," the dog sighed, clearly not too fond of the idea of handling the creatures. "Lemme cool that stone down a bit first." Before the fire girl could ask what he meant by that, Jake had morphed himself into the shape of a giant electric fan and started blasting a powerful air jet along the tunnel.

"How does he DO that?" Flame Princess asked Finn. "I mean, I get that he can stretch and all, but that's like turning into an inanimate object and how do the rotors even work? Wouldn't his bones and organs get in the way? Where do they go?"

The human boy looked back at her blankly, clearly not following. "Uhm… it's magic?" he offered eventually. "It just works for no reason. We've never questioned it."

"But there's got to be… never mind." Deciding it was best to quit while she was ahead, Flame Princess didn't ask any more. Besides, it was obvious that what Jake was doing was definitely working, the heat in the chamber was quickly dropping and the melted stone had stopped glowing. As Jake's fan-body stopped turning, Finn moved forward to casually poke at the edges of the tunnel with an unprotected hand.

"Feels a bit warm, but no biggie," the human said cheerfully as Jake changed back into his normal form, apparently unconcerned that the contact would have vaporised his flesh only a few minutes earlier. "How did you end up not falling right through to the centre of the earth?" Finn asked curiously. "Can you just like… turn it off or something?"

"Of course," the fire girl replied, her tone suggesting that should have been obvious. "Mom taught me how to control my heat levels, I'd only burn right through the planet if I totally lost control, and that'll never happen."

There was a scuffling sound from the mine tunnel, and Flame Princess turned to see the rust monster shepherding its brood back into the chamber. To her surprise, they immediately scurried over to investigate the hole she'd made, antennae flickering over the empty space as they made small chittering sounds. The parent creature followed them, showing just as much interest in the new addition to its home. Suddenly, before any of them could stop it, it hopped into the tunnel and disappeared into the hole.

"Huh. Guess we won't have to figure out a way to make them go down it then," Jake commented. "So, are we gonna seal it up now or what?"

"No!" Flame Princess protested indignantly. "The tunnel only goes down so far, then it drops away straight down. They won't survive that fall! If we block it up now they'll be stuck there, so we need to get them down to the tunnel you found."

"Ugh, fine," The dog rolled his eyes. "Hold my feet then." Without further ado, Jake stretched his body down into the tunnel, and Finn quickly stepped on one of his brother's feet to keep it in place. After a few seconds of concentration to cool one of her own feet, Flame Princess followed suit.

Stretching down the molten tunnel, Jake muttered to himself in a continuous low grumble. "…supposed to save the mine but nooooooo, save the freakin' rust monsters… coulda just bashed their brains in and been home by now making dinner… man, I'm hungry…" Up ahead he could see that the rust monsters had stopped, presumably where the tunnel dropped away, and stretched his body out into a net shape to snare the lot of them in a single swoop.

Chittering in agitation at the sudden confinement, the creatures struggled and bit ineffectually at the strands of stretchy flesh that had trapped them. Unfazed, since their mandibles were made for crushing rust instead of cutting, Jake unceremoniously tipped them out into the empty space beneath them. He was very tempted to let them go as well, but decided it wasn't worth the complaints he'd get from the fire girl and also his brother, who was sure to take her side.

"Cute my left buttcheek," Jake growled to himself as forked insectile feet scrabbled at his nose while blunt mandibles chewed on his ear. "Hey, you knock that off! You wanted to come down here, that's where you're going!" Stretching his lower body out further, Jake slowly lowered the rust monsters into the crevasse, though not without 'accidentally' knocking a couple of the bitey ones against the sides in the process. "Heh."

A few minutes later, Jake landed on an uneven mound of solidified magma in the lower tunnel. He immediately released the creatures and pulled back up sharply until he was well out of reach just in case they changed their minds about getting down there. But as the rust monsters righted themselves and investigated their surroundings, they only seemed to get more excited. The smaller creatures were scurrying in circles with excited chittered, while their parent stood completely still except for its antennae which were rapidly flickering through the air. Then it herded its brood together and sped off along the tunnel with the smaller creatures in hot pursuit.

"Welp, problem solved I guess," Jake commented, then rapidly retracted himself back into the upper chamber like an elastic band snapping back into shape. "Okay, they've run off down there, NOW can we seal this thing up?"

"You really think they're okay down there?" Flame Princess asked as she and Finn removed their feet from Jake's paws.

"Yeah yeah, they got real excited about something and ran off. They're probably eating their way through an iron vein the miners haven't reached yet," Jake added as he came to that uncomfortable realisation. "So… maybe it's not a permanent fix."

"Hey, Blacksmith Town doesn't own all the iron in Ooo," the fire girl replied defensively. "And it would take them years to dig down that far anyway; you said that tunnel didn't look like it was part of the mine."

"Well, that's true," the dog admitted, then stretched out one arm to grab a large chunk of rock from the wall he'd collapsed earlier, jamming it roughly into the shaft Flame Princess had made. "But we'd better seal this up anyway. Care to do the honours, Princess?"

Welding the large rock into place was much easier for the fire girl than boring through solid stone, then Finn and Jake piled more loose rubble and sand on top. Ten minutes later, Flame Princess had vitrified it into a hard plug and fused it into the floor, which the three of them looked down at with obvious satisfaction.

"Well, I'd say this adventure was a huge success," Finn said brightly. "Okay, so we didn't get any loot, but we totally saved the mine and saved the rust monsters too. Totally rad!" He grinned at the young elemental as he continued. "We couldn't have done it without you, FP. You should totally come on more adventures with us! Uhm… and is it okay to call you FP?"

"It's fine," Flame Princess replied with a giggle as she looked up. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw movement - an odd ripple in the air that looked almost like a figure. But when she blinked it had vanished, and she guessed it must have been residual heat haze. "We better get back to the surface though; I'll need to get back to the Candy Kingdom before my mom gets suspicious."

"Yeah, let's go!" Finn immediately sprinted out into the mine without waiting for Jake and Flame Princess to follow, his footsteps echoing briefly until they ended with a thud as he tripped on something in the dark. "Ow!"

Jake sighed heavily, glancing at Flame Princess apologetically. "He does learn eventually. He just has to do it the hard way. Several times."


	29. Chapter 29

The first thing that Princess Bubblegum had felt when she'd found Flame Princess and her companions in the mine was overwhelming relief that eclipsed her anger completely. Her daughter was unharmed, not trapped in a rockfall or suffocated from lack of oxygen or otherwise injured. Finn and Jake seemed fine as well, but the candy princess didn't pay much attention to them, it was their fault Feuer had come down here in the first place.

When Bubblegum had arrived at Blacksmith Town, the first thing she'd done was grab the nearest townsperson– who had happened to be the forgemaster – then interrogate them about whether he'd seen her daughter. Surprised and intimidated by her obvious anger, Broo had quickly explained that yes, the fire girl had been there with Finn and Jake and had gone down the mine with them. Bubblegum had nearly exploded with anxious fury there and then, but instead she'd stormed into the mine, wishing that she'd gone with her instincts and implanted a GPS microchip in the fire girl when she was a toddler.

It didn't take the candy princess long to pinpoint their location using the sensors on her nightvision goggles. She hadn't needed to use the underground guidance system in centuries, but the heat and vibration detection was just as sharp as ever and soon picked up the distant hum of voices and Flame Princess' thermal signature. From the soundwaves it looked like the conversation wasn't panicked, which implied that everything was okay. And as she calmed down, Bubblegum reconsidered her initial plan to burst in and drag her daughter back to the surface. She was still furious of course, but if Flame Princess was okay then there was no need to humiliate her like that in front of Finn and Jake.

Tapping the wristband she was wearing, Bubblegum activated the stealth field and immediately vanished, becoming no more than a shimmering outline. She continued onwards more carefully, trying not to make any sound, then started in sudden fear as her goggles picked up a massive burst of heat deeper in the mine. Throwing caution to the wind, the candy princess sprinted towards its source.

By the time Bubblegum reached the place where the heat signature had originated, it had already cooled back down to a normal level – well, normal for Flame Princess anyway. As she reached the hole that Jake had made in the wall of the mine – wincing as she saw that it was completely unsupported – Bubblegum stepped through it carefully, and had to stop herself from sighing loudly in relief. Flame Princess was standing with Finn by a pit in the floor that looked like it had been melted into it, which explained the heat blast. The candy princess made a mental note to talk to her daughter about that later.

The two children were standing on a pair of tan paws that must have belonged to Jake, presumably the rest of the magic dog was somewhere down that pit. They both looked fine, not even bruised or scraped, and Bubblegum sighed softly in relief. She raised one hand to her wrist to deactivate the stealth field, intending to appear and demand an explanation, but hesitated at the last moment. Flame Princess had deliberately disobeyed her, and she was certainly in trouble… but maybe it was best to let her complete this adventure before confronting her. It would certainly boost the girl's confidence to know that she'd helped saved the mine and if Bubblegum interrupted her now that could do more harm than good in the long run.

So she watched instead as Jake emerged from the pit and the three of them blocked it off, feeling a surge of pride despite herself as Flame Princess expertly fused the loose rock into one solid piece. And the princess couldn't help smiling when her daughter giggled and blushed as Finn told her they couldn't have succeeded without her. Then she froze as the fire girl seemed to catch sight of her, looking directly at her with a slight frown. Remaining motionless, Bubblegum breathed out thankfully as Flame Princess looked back towards Finn, and slowly retraced her steps out of the chamber. Once she was safely out of sight and concealed by the darkness of the unlit mine tunnel, Bubblegum turned and sprinted back towards the surface.

o.o.o.o.o

The three adventurers reached the mine entrance half an hour later, blinking as they stepped out into the evening sunlight. Flame Princess' eyes widened as she looked at the position of the sun, realising that much more time had passed than she'd thought while they'd been underground.

"Oh Glob, my mom's definitely going to be looking for me by now!" the fire girl groaned despairingly. "I'm gonna be in trouble…"

"Why?" Jake asked with the same sly grin he'd had back at the Candy Castle. "All you did was come with us to Blacksmith Town, remember? You never went down the mine; you were up here waiting for us the whole time."

"Yeah, that's right!" Flame Princess brightened at the thought. "Yeah, she might be mad that I've been gone so long, but it's not like I'm not allowed to go outside by myself or anything. I'm not a baby any more. As long as she doesn't know I was in the mine then she can't get THAT mad, can she?"

"Uhm…" Finn stopped dead in his tracks as he saw Broo and Jorgen waiting ahead of them. And also saw who was waiting with them. "Iiiiiii… think she might know already."

Looking up, Flame Princess barely noticed the ogre and the Marauder, her attention immediately seized by the woman standing between them with her arms folded, wearing a crown and an ominous glare. "…oh. I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"Oh yes," Princess Bubblegum replied, her voice icy. "You are in SO much trouble, young lady…"

o.o.o.o.o

**_Meanwhile, miles below the surface of Ooo…_ **

Duke Auric of the Golden Realm hit the ground with a hard thud that knocked both the wind out of him, and his crystal-bladed sword from his grasp. He reached for the weapon desperately, but as his fingers brushed its hilt his wrist was seized in a grip that was literally iron as a heavy foot landed on his chest and pinned him to the ground.

General Thaddeus Kaine of the Iron Regions sneered down at his opponent as the golden man struggled helplessly beneath his foot, tightening his grasp on Auric's wrist as he slowly began to pull at his arm. "Pitiful," the general rasped. "Princess Argent put up a better fight than you." As he spoke, one of his lieutenants dragged the silver woman forwards, her wrists and ankles already bound in iron, and threw her down beside Auric. "And don't expect Cyprium or Tytos to save you, they're both retreating back to their realms. Not that it's going to do them any good," he added with a dark chuckle. "Stannum and Wolfram have already surrendered. Soon the Iron Regions will have conquered the entirety of the Metallic Lands."

Auric gritted his teeth as his arm began to stretch, the gold of his body much softer than the unyielding iron of Kaine. "No one kingdom can rule the Metallic Lands," he hissed between his teeth. "You're destroying a balance that lasted centuries!"

Kaine tapped his chin in mock-thoughtfulness as he pretended to think that over. "Now where have I heard that line before… oh yes, the former Lord Ferric of the Iron Regions told me much the same thing before I took his head off. He was weak. But he made a fine weapon, don't you think?" he added with a chuckle and a meaningful wave of the double-ended glaive he held in his free hand. "And since I'm going to be the new Emperor of the Metallic Lands, I think I'll need a crown…" Jerking savagely on Auric's wrist and twisting hard, Kaine tore the duke's arm off at the elbow, the metal joint shearing with a shriek that was almost as loud as Auric's.

Kicking the golden man aside, Kaine turned back towards his army as they lined up in serried ranks across the square where he'd duelled Auric, the Golden Palace behind him. He brandished the arm he'd torn from the duke over his head, liquid metal blood spattering across his shoulder and arm, and grinned as his soldiers cheered.

"The Golden Realm has fallen!" Kaine announced, his voice echoing though the small cavern that housed the palace. "So has the Silver Kingdom, and the Tin Barony and Tungsten Protectorate have both surrendered. Only the Copper Federation and Titanium Regency are left, and they can't hope to defeat us! For too long the Iron Regions have allowed the lesser metals to hold us back; first we take the Metallic Lands, then the entire underground!"

"You're mad!" Princess Argent shouted from behind him. She'd managed to roll closer to Auric, and was awkwardly trying to stem the flow of blood from his arm with her bound hands, moulding the ductile shreds of golden skin around the stump at his elbow. "Even if you could conquer the rest of the underground, what then? Would you move onto the surface?"

Swinging round to face the silver woman, Kaine grinned at her, his eyes bright with fanaticism. "Why not?" Turning back to his army, the general raised his voice once more. "First we take the Fire Kingdom and enslave the elementals to power our smelting furnaces. They fear water much more than we do, what's a bit of rust to us? Then the Gem Worlds and the Crystal Regency, if we can't shatter them then we'll use them as weapons! The Stone Lands will barely be a diversion, we'll carve them into blocks for the fortresses we'll build when we move to conquer the lands above, and none of those pitiful surface kingdoms will be able to withstand us. In fact, once we reach the surface, Grod himself could not stop us!" Throwing back his head, the iron general laughed, then sputtered as he was hit by a shower of gravel falling from the cavern roof overhead. "What the…" Looking upwards, Kaine's eyes widened as an insectile shape dropped from a hole in the rock to land directly on his face as feathery antenna whipped out to lash at his skin, burning like acid.

There were a few moments of shocked silence as Kaine's soldiers watched their supposedly invincible leader drop to his knees, clawing briefly at the large insect that had fallen on him as he screamed, then falling silent as his entire head was reduced to rust. His body remained in its kneeling position, rusting firmly into place as more of the insects leapt down from the cavern roof.

Staggering to his feet, Auric pointed at Kaine's body and shouted with as much force as he could muster. "Grod has judged your leader for his hubris and the crime of murdering his rightful lord! See for yourselves!"

The bravest of Kaine's lieutenants took one step towards his leader's body, only to freeze as it began to crumble. The head of the largest insect swivelled towards him to look at him with cold black eyes as its terrible, metal-eating antenna swished around its head like demonic whips. Just being near it made his iron skin tingle and with a shriek of fear, the lieutenant bolted into the sudden pandemonium that was the ignominious retreat of the Iron Army from the Golden Palace.

Sinking back to his knees with a long sigh of relief, Auric watched the creatures devour the greatest threat the Metallic Lands had ever faced. Argent moved over to kneel beside him, then recoiled with a startled gasp as one of the giant insects leapt at her, automatically raising her hands to protect her face. But all that happened was that her wrists began to itch slightly, and as she cracked one eye open she saw that the creature was devouring the iron that bound her arms, her skin had only tarnished slightly at the contact. "What in Grod's name are they, Auric?" she asked softly, her voice awestruck.

The Gold Duke could only laugh in increasingly lightheaded amazement. "Well, I've heard of them. Iron devils or something they were called. They eat iron." He held out his remaining hand towards the largest creature, its antenna flickered over his skin but had no effect and it paid no further attention to him. "But they've been extinct for centuries. So I really do think they're an act of Grod."

Argent considered that for a few moments, rubbing the tarnish off her freed wrists, then grinned slowly. "Do you think this act of Grod would send the Iron Army running from my kingdom as well?"

"Oh yes," Auric replied, slumping onto his back as the ragged remnants of his city guard emerged into the square in ones and twos, many supporting injured comrades. "I think the Iron Army is in for an extremely unpleasant surprise…


End file.
